You might remember when I visited the Melbourne flower show I saw a pretty rose pillow that I wanted to try and replicate? Well it was super easy!
This is the one I saw at the flower show:
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What you need:
So first thing is to decide how big you want to make the cushion cover. Squares work best for these pillows.
Cut out a square in the size you want plus a couple of cm on either side for seam allowance.
Now cut out the back, you will need 2 rectangles that overlap around 10cm in the middle. This is how we will get the pillow in and out of the case! You can see below the square is on the bottom with two rectangles over the top showing how they overlap in the middle.
Now let’s cut out the pieces of the rose!
Cut strips of muslin around 15cm wide. I needed 4 to cover my case but you will need more/less depending on the size you’re making. Cut one of the strips to a point on one end, this will be the middle of the rose. Muslin works really well for this because even when the edges fray they look really delicate and pretty.
Basically to form the rose we’ll put the strips in a big spiral, this is how it looks roughly laid out…
I personally hate pins while I’m sewing but I know that a lot of people are more comfortable using them so I’ll show where to put them in this tutorial. To start the rose, pin the pointy end of first strip of muslin to the middle of the square .
Following a tight spiral keep pinning until you reach the end. Don’t pin the next strip yet because having that many ruffles in one place makes it too hard to sew. The tighter you make the spiral, the more ruffly the petals will be in the end.
Take it to your sewing machine and starting at the centre sew directly down the center of the muslin strip following the spiral. If you want, while you sew you can pleat the muslin a little bit to make the petals more ruffly or stretch the muslin to make them stand straight up. I made mine point up in the middle then ruffly on the outside 😀
This is what mine looked like after the first strip was sewn on. The dotted line below is where you should be stitching, see how it folds in half and forms the petals?
Over lap the next strip a bit with the first and then keep sewing following the spiral.
After the second one’s finished…
When I added the next one I started pleating the muslin as I sewed to make the petals more ruffly. When you reach the end of the last strip stitch it as close to the last row as you can so the end looks clean.
This is the finished rose:
On the back you should be able to see a clear spiral of stitches…
Yay! Now we just need to turn it into a pillow case! Overlock one of the long edges on each of the rectangle pieces. The overlocked edges (in the middle below) will form the hole to get the pillow in and out of so they need to be finished well.
Fold them over and pin in place…
So lay the rose square out face up.
Fold all of the petals of the rose in so they don’t accidentally get sewn into the sides. Pin in place.
Put the first rectangle over the top of the rose with the folded edge facing up. Pin in place like this:
Add the other rectangle to the other side and make sure the two rectangles overlap a decent amount in the middle. Pin!
Overlock around the outside of the square! Remove the pins and that’s pretty much it ^_^ Trim loose threads and turn it inside out.
On the back you can see that the ends are all folded under and out of the way. If you feel the need, you can add a button there on the back or velcro to give it an extra closure.
And the front 😀
Then all you need to do is stick a pillow inside! The whole project took me maybe 30min to do. So you could realistically make a whole bunch of matching ones in an afternoon.
I think mine is pretty close to the original so I’m happy! What do you guys think? |
