color block pillow tutorial
March 27th, 2012
Here is a little project to spring up your home. I made this pillow in springy greens, but any colors would of course work. Ticking would look very nice, with the stripes going opposite ways. The pillow is based on a simple quilt square (does it have a name?) and comes together super fast. Happy Spring!
color block pillow
materials:
- two squares of fabric slightly larger than your pillow
- square pillow form
- zipper slightly smaller than your pillow
directions:
1. Cut your fabric 2 inches larger than your pillow. For example: my pillow was 13in square, so I cut my fabric into 15in squares.
2. Put the squares together, right sides facing. Using a straight edge, draw a line diagonally across the fabric. No one will see the line, so you can use a regular pencil or pen.
3. Sew 1/4in from the line. First sew on one side of the line, and then on the other. You will have two seams, one on each side of the line. This is shown more clearly in the photo below.
4. Cut directly on the line you drew.
5. Ta Da! You now have two squares. Open them up and press the seam to one side–the side with the darker colored fabric.
6. Now you have a choice. You can line the squares up, right sides facing, with the seams also alined like I did in the photo above. Or you can arrange it so the triangles are oriented differently on each side–the seams will not line up, but will make an X. Play around with it and see what you like. But unless you have a clear fiberglass couch no one is going to see both sides at once.
7. I am not going to explain how to do the zipper, because there is a good tutorial that does it already–Sewing 101: Zippered Throw Pillows. This is the method I use for putting zippers in pillows and it is dead easy. There are other ways that look a bit nicer, but this one is super fast and hard to screw up. I encourage you to try it if you haven’t used zippers before–you will succeed, I know it!
8. Try the pillow on your pillow form. It might need some taking in. I had to take mine off and sew it a bit smaller to make it fit. Hey look, you’re done! And you made a super chic, color block, geometric, trendy as all get out pillow. Your couch will thank you.
Thanks for the fun tutorial! :) xo Heather
so cute!
I was thinking of you and your pillow week when I made this!
I love the look of these – exactly what I want in my living room. Only…I’m too grumpy when I sew to actually attempt them myself. If I could find someone to make them for me, though, I would be all over it!
very chic. i’m also kind of dying over the nani iro (?) one in the background of the first photo. a perfect combo!
Love this – it’s such a clever and time-saving way to sew 2 pieces together!
Love this cushion, will definitely be giving this a go with some of my fabric stash – there’s plenty of it! x
So cool and so easy. Thanks for the tutorial and inspiration!
very cute, love the colours…its called a half square triangle or HST for short…
The pillows are cool, but I quickly looked past them to the row of black leather hexies on your chair. Did you cover this chair yourself? If so, clever!
melanie,
I patched a hole with a row of vinyl hexes a few years back. Sewing with vinyl is tough, sewing hexagons with vinyl is infuriating! But it turned out well, I think.
http://www.elsiemarley.com/chair-patch.html
so perfect, especially for my plexiglass couch.
I was going to ask about the hexagons too, but i see you already answered it. You are so clever- what a great idea that is also great looking! Going to read that post now!