Thursday, March 10, 2011

Decision

I don't know about you all, but the first thing I ever learned how to sew was a pillow. Two squares of fabric, four seams, and some stuffing followed by some inexpert stitching closed of the hole...practical, yet not thrilling. Thus in my mind pillows were always some boring, ho-hum thing I'd sew once every few years when I got tired of my old ones. But in the process of making this pillow I began to realize how creative you can get and how fabulous the result can be when making them. When my friend Elizabeth and I decided to do this little one-to-one swap, and she suggested pillows my first thought was, "Ughhhhhh...pillows." But now I'm so inspired I want to make fifty different designs and have my whole house overflowing with pillows!!

So anyway, the debate about wood vs. white raged on both here and on Flickr, but nothing was helping. In the end I decided to just go ahead and ask Elizabeth which she would prefer. She was just as conflicted but ultimately decided on wooden. So today I sewed on 12 wooden buttons and made the buttonholes for the back. I also made a pillow insert since this isn't a standard sized pillow, and the washed the cover to make sure that it didn't shrink so much the pillow wouldn't fit inside. It came out great!

Elizabeth's pillow {done}

Here it is, all finished and sitting pretty.

The back

Here's the back. You can tell from the bursting buttons that I stuffed this sucker to capacity. Nothing annoys me more than a floppy, half-full pillow. Yuck.

Glamor shot

And here it is looking all pretty in my chair. It's telling me it wants to stay here forever, but I told it, "Tough noogies, you have to get out." It cried for awhile but I think it will like its new home. 

Here's to the happy dance that follows a successful finished product. Woohoo!


10 comments:

Rachel at Stitched in Color said...

It's a beautiful finish! I always love wooden buttons. Oh, and I'm with you on firm pillows...

rachel.lyn said...

that is SO PRETTY!

blithe & arden said...

JENN!! I love it!!! I can't believe it's mine all mine. I can't wait to put it on my bed!! You did such a good job. Now I have to get over my sewing inferiority complex and get started on yours....haha.

Wendy said...

It turned out fantastic! the wooden buttons look great, so from now on, ignore any advice I may give you!

Lynz said...

Ha, I had exactly that revelation about pillows in January!!! I always thought "why the hell would I want to waste time making a cushion?!?!?" and in the process of making one as a gift discovered they're just great to make!! Lets you try out stuff without commiting to a whole quilt. And, quite frankly, yours is totes gorgeous. I'm envious of your friend!!!

P.S. I've followed you over from Lily's Quilts!

P.P.S. WV is "tedumper"!! Great non-word!

blessedby5 said...

Wow I love it good job girl!!
Now where is mine.heehee

Jenny Squawk said...

This is the most beautiful pillow I've ever seen! I felt the same about pillows - boring. TriangleMQG is going to have a pillow swap in June and I'm feeling inspired.

Joanna said...

Oh yes yes yes the wooden buttons were the right way to go I think! It is just beautiful!

Jennifer R said...

It's beautiful Jenn! I'm glad you went with the wooden buttons - despite my silly opinion :) I think it's perfect :)

Manda said...

Pillow is gorgeous!