Create these pillows using the Placemat Fabric Panel from my Homestead Life collection.
By trimming the patterned sides off any (or all!) of the six designs you can add border treatments to create quick and easy pillows for your home.
To get started, decide which placemat panel designs you want to use and then choose coordinating fabric to create borders to make a square the size of your desired pillow.
The example that follows uses 1/4″ seams for the pillow front and 1/2″ seams when sewing the front to the back.
Strips of fabric are cut from selvage to selvage – or the width of the fabric (WF).
I am making a pillow cover with an envelope close that will fit a 16 inch pillow. That way I can use the same pillow and change the cover with the seasons, having fabric “bags” to store instead of puffy pillows!
Begin by trimming the border patterns off each side of the placemat panel. You might not be able to cut a perfect square, depending on the design you choose, but you will square the pillow with your border fabrics.
Next cut the border fabric(s) you will need for your pillow front. In this example I cut two 2″ strips the width of the green wheat fabric (WF) and two 3″ WF strips from the flowers on cream wood.
Sew green strips to either side of the image fabric with a 1/4″ seam. I like to make the border strips a little long and then trim after pressing the seams open – just to make sure things stay nice and square. It might use a few extra inches of fabric but it’s worth it!
Add the other two sides, press seams open and trim to square.
Repeat the same steps with the flowered print.
Trim to 17″ square. (The top and bottom borders are slightly larger than the sides but it won’t be noticeable once it’s made into a pillow)
The back of the pillow is made with two pieces of fabric cut to 17″ wide x 12″ high.
Fold one 17″ edge of each piece down 1/4″ and over again then stitch to create a finished edge.
With right sides together, place the first half of the envelope back on top of the pillow front, lining up the top edge of the pillow front and the un-finished edge of the backing fabric.
Next place the second half of the envelope back down, lining up the bottom edge of the pillow front and the un-finished edge of the backing fabric.
The backing fabrics will overlap by a few inches so the pillow insides won’t show.
Sew around the entire square with 1/2″ seam, going back and forth once over each place the backing comes together for extra support when inserting or removing the pillow form.
Turn right side out and insert a 16″ pillow form.
Now the placemat has transformed into a gorgeous pillow!
For the cow pillow, I used 4″ wide stripes of wheat on black and cut 4″ squares from the main Homestead Life print – centering the squares over 4 different sayings that I wanted to feature.
So cute I am sewing two pillows tonight. Also sewing a fabric bin.