LIVE! Easy Sew: Cute and Colorful Pillows - Week 2

Hello National Sewing Circle. This is Emily Steffen from Oh Yay Studio, and we are in our second installment of our four-part mini series about how to add color to the pillows. And last week we did a colorful tassel pillow, which I thought I had but I don't . And this week we are starting doing a little bit more sewing with this rainbow pillow. My daughter loves rainbows.

She loves color. I've been a seeker of color for my whole life. I've done a couple of napkin patterns and napkin patterns for the Sew Simple Sewing Challenge and a pizza pouch also but we try to add color in everywhere we can. So this is a really simple pattern, a really simple sew that you will love to make. So let's get started.

For this project, we are gonna need your background fabric and I've chosen pink for my back for this particular pillow. I have a white background and then I chose four different stripes of the rainbows. And then you will need some poms, pumid poms, yarn to make some pom-outs or you can battle the poms if you don't want to, but pos are always fun if you ask me. And you'll need some paper, scissors, tape, your sewing machine, and that's about it. So leave some comments, ask some questions let us know where you're joining in from.

And we will get started. Andrew just commented. I can't sew, but I will learn something today. I sure hope so. And let me just tell you the fun thing about pompoms, they are a no sew craft.

So maybe you can just be the cloud maker for somebody who is making this project. Awesome, so I said on the last pillow that we did last week with the tassels, that that pillow you could use a pre-made pillow cover. This one isn't that option . This is the one in the four-part series that you won't be able to use a pre-done pillow cover just to kind of embellish the top because we're sewing right onto the cover. And this is a little bit, this pattern has a little bit of a leeway into what a fourth pattern is, which is a custom-made applicate pillow, because with both this pattern and with that pattern, we're gonna be making a little bit of a pattern out of paper.

And now I am like a 100% the kind of sewist and the kind of sewer that knows that you can do one thing in 400 different ways. So I know some, if you were an expert pattern maker you might look at my tech, you can go oh my stars, that is bananas, but I feel like this will still give you the excitement and the gumption to add this color to your pillow in a really easy way. So first and foremost is you'll wanna make the pieces to your pillow cover. Last week it was the same exact way you measure your pillow. This one says on the tag, it's an 18 by 18.

So I've cut one piece that's a 19 by 19 so I'm gonna give myself a good 1/2 inch seam allowance on all four sides. And then my back, I don't wanna fuss with zippers 'cause I just don't wanna deal with them, I create this sort of tuck. So it's just an overlay of each two sides. So the sizing ends up being 19 inches, and then I always do a four to five inch overlay. So I think this one was four, 4 1/2 inches, it doesn't have to be exact.

So it's 19 by 15, no 19 by 14. Something like that is my sizing. And then that creates this sort of overlay, the tuck's the same as last week's so it's probably we did. So I have that. This is my cover, the 19 by 19.

And then I have pre-cut my backs. If you can see, and then all have done is to hem the backs to make them so that they have a nice, easy, finished edge, is I just ironed a little hem piece right here? And then in this, and then we're gonna straight stitch it really quick before we get started on the actual pattern of the felt. So, lemme see, I'm gonna turn this camera down just a little bit. So you can see when using my Janome 9450 today because it is a powerhouse of a machine.

I love it. I love, love it. And all I'm doing is just with a straight foot just doing a straight stitch to hem this so that it's an easy back. And you can, if you really want to add a zipper the more parts of it, I love it add a zipper, zipper away but I try to make things simple and straightforward. And I'm almost out of a bobbin thread 'cause that's part for the course of when I'm sewing.

Let us know where you're tuning in from today. I am in Wisconsin in the Rolling Hills and it is sunny and gorgeous outside. And I'm thankful for that weather. Just the top stitch on both of these back pieces, the back panels is what you're gonna say. Correct and then do the same with my back.

So all it is just a finish stitch, nothing fancy. Ooh, Anya is from Minnesota. I'm waving at you because I actually I'm in Hudson's right here in Minnesota, so hello, hello, hello. I hope you enjoy this lovely weather as much as I do. Sometimes it is difficult to sit at the sewing machine with this amazing weather but thankfully I have awesome windows in my studio so you can still enjoy it.

All right. So what you probably wanna think about, I often get questions about how you choose colors for things. And here's my answer. Always, always, always favorite color, is you probably in your head right now have an idea of what your most favorite color on the planet is I guess it's probably not just green, it's maybe like lime green or sage green. It's not just blue, it's maybe like robin egg blue or a really fun blue color.

And people often ask, how do we know how to choose colors? And I have these colors for the rainbow and obviously we could have done red, orange, yellow, green. You can do more straight, more chunkier stripes if you have a bigger pillow. But I always start with colors that I love. I love mustard yellow.

I love turquoise. And I always added some, this is for my daughter and she loves pink. So of course I added two pink colors. Today, I'm gonna make stripes out of, I have this like rusty orange color, this mustard, I ironed this mustard. And these might be a little bit, take up little bit different on camera, but this is like a blush.

And then this is like a lavender. So I love that this isn't a true rainbow color but I love that you can mix and match colors. And honestly, this pattern could be a scrap busting pattern because all we need is enough just to make one of these Tempe strengths. So Maria is coming from Mexico. Hello Maria, you are awesome.

So the first thing, like I said this is gonna be maybe a little bit interesting for those who typically make big patterns or do maybe more precise quilting, but this is just gives you an insight into kind of what we're making today. So when I make a pattern or trying to make a design for a pillow or for a project or something I always use computer paper to start off with, you can use newspaper you can use newsprint, you can use anything. Honestly, you can use random things that your kid has taken home from school and you can recycle because honestly it's just gonna be something that you use to cut. So obviously this is our pillow. I will lay this on here, and this is not a precise project.

It is not precise at all. And this is what I wanna give you the freedom to make this not a precise project. It doesn't have to be perfect because it's gonna be amazing. It's gonna be a little bit puffy from the sides. So I will mark off so general, right?

I want my rainbow to be coming this direction. So I'm gonna mark off on my pattern, just kind of the general area of where I want it to land. So about here, about here, about here and I wanna make, so this will go maybe like that, maybe like about this. I'm not using a crazy sharpie. That's gonna go through the paper to make my pillow an interesting color.

So... This is about eyeballing, right? So here's my one, two, three, four stripes that I have. I know it might be a little bit tricky to see but I'm going to take my paper scissors and cut these out and you can cut them exactly on the lines because when you add in the seam allowance I'm gonna add it in when I actually cut out the fabric. And I am using my fabric scissors right now which is the thing I tell my children never to do.

Jen suggested you use leftover present tissue from her homemade patterns. Literally, that is an incredible idea. My son just had a birthday this week and I threw all that tissue away. That is an awesome idea because it doesn't have to be perfect or flat 'cause sometimes I only use it for birthday presents. That's a great idea Jen.

So you can, if you really wanna be precise, you could put a pencil with a string and make more sort of precise curvatures. If you really want it to be more of a 1/2 circle that is a 100% fine. But I am not a lady of perfection . Which can be freeing sometimes when you're effecting. So here is gonna be, approximately, my four stripes.

Now you can, if you want to lay them out and be sure that you love where they go and where they land and see kind of where they're, I recommend it a little bit just to make sure you love it. Make sure it's everything you want it to be. Now what I'm laying it out. I'm kind of realizing like, this stripe up here is coming towards the edge of the pillow. So I'm gonna actually extend the stripe a little bit longer just to make sure that I don't end up with some pockets right here.

Again, this isn't precise, but I love it. And when we cut our patterns I'm gonna show you on here on the pillow. So I'm gonna give you a little overview and then I'll show you how to actually do it. I will have my lavender, my blush, my mustard and my orange. So when I'm cutting this seam right here, this corner seam will be obviously flush to my back end, which is kind of a muslin white color.

This will be flushed. I'm gonna add in a seam allowance of a 1/4 of an inch or a little bit more, depending on how much you want to iron, I'll show you how right here on your top part. So right here on the top part of your rainbow. So a seam allowance here a seam allowance here, a seam allowance here and then on these two on this top rainbow on both sides because what we're gonna do is we're gonna iron over these sides because you don't want a lot edge. So you're ironing over.

And then this is gonna kind of what's gonna help create this sort of 3-D effect with the rainbow, if that makes sense. So I'm adding a seam allowance on this side, on this side, on this side, and then on both sides of this tuck here which for me will be the orange today. You have any questions about that? Please let me know because it isn't complicated but it's hard to explain because of the rainbows, rainbow shapes rainbow stripes have two sides. So my first color is gonna be this lavender.

And you can pin, if you want to, I am just going to eyeball it because this is how I roll. So I'm adding actually, I'm just gonna take it back. I'm adding a little bit more than a 1/4 inch. I would say probably three, eight, seven inch. Then here, right here.

This is what I'm going to iron over right there. You see that? So this is what I will iron over to make it finished on the side. And just set that aside on my ironing board. Lavender is done, now onto the blush.

If you're making along, I wanna hear the colors that you're going to use or plan to use or where you want this pillow to be. This will be a really fun pillow for a deck or a project like that on your patio or the verandah. So the side, I will keep flush this side. I'm going to add that. I think I said it wrong.

No it's right almost sorry. I was second guessing myself. No, that's right. I second guessed myself. This side, I wanna add the extra this side I wanna keep flush, which was right.

Instead of right on the other one. You can see through it by now. Sometimes the fabric that I end up with, I can buy at thrift stores or other places and it's really, this one's a little bit thinner for a project . Not here and not here, a little bit this side. I wanna make sure that this is about the same distance or same width just because I wanna iron over this flap, the exact same.

So... I'm bending a little bit on the side over here just because I wanted to be precise. Normally I would cut this with a rotary tool and make it a little bit easier but I know this looks really sloppy you guys, and it is actually but it will not be when you sew it on. This will actually be something that will be fun for kids. Even if you have a kid that can do scissors they can even cut this up because it doesn't have to be perfect because of the way that we're going to sew it on.

Harley just says ironing pieces is always a hassle but much needed. Oh my stars. I would a 100% agree with that, 100% agree with that. Okay. Ironing is kind of tiring.

These pieces, so I'm gonna cut these out. Actually, I'm not gonna show you how to do every single piece of this. I'm gonna show you how to do these two first so you get the idea of what I'm trying to explain. So when I bring my ironing board over, so you can see a little bit here and idea is like I said, you're going to tuck this piece like this right. So you're gonna give yourself a finished edge by ironing just a lip.

It's gonna be a little hard to see but I will show you. It's like, you're you know ironing the edge of the shirt or something that could be precise. So I ironed it over just like that. So I don't have my raw edge showing anymore, right. Where do you find your...

Tena asked where do you find that cheaper fabric pieces? Okay. So I am a huge fan of going into like thrift stores. This actually, this cover right here is from a thrift store and it is a little bit thinner. I don't even know what it is.

It's not 100% cotton. It has a little bit of a, probably poly to it I would say because it's kind of stretchy. I look for colors. I 100% don't look for the fabric with which I know maybe it's not a typical thing that a quilter would do but I love, excuse me. I love looking for colors.

And when I'm in an aisle at a Goodwill or a thrift store, there's always curtains, there's maybe napkins. I found really cool, like old vintage flower napkin colors. And I feel like you can kind of see the trends of the ages or the eras. If you can grab like this 70s yellow right now is everywhere. And I absolutely love it.

So I'll totally use random other things and cut them up, wash them of course, soap that we can supplement that and things to get all the defeat out of it from sitting maybe in a basement or a closet for a long time. But I always use repurposed fabric like that. Georgia asked recommendations for what fabric to use if you wanna make the outdoor pillows. That's a super good question. I have made some outdoor pillows before and I've used what is called duck cloth.

I don't know if that is the actual name of it. I don't know if you can find it at Joanne's, you can find it in a lot of places. It's a thicker, heavier canvas. And then what I've done is Scotchgard has this outdoor spray and it's like a water repellent spray, sort of, it looks like spray paint, but it's like a water repellent. And when I needed outdoor couch cushions and then the pillows up there, that's what I've used.

And one of the reason I use duck cloth is because it's thicker and I want it to be thicker to hold up to going around or bringing inside or outside if it's raining. And I know you probably could get treated material but I just chose to treat the material with that Scotchgard spray after the fact. There is material out there that is like sun protected and weather protected for colors which is something I would have loved to get, it's quite expensive. I think you'd probably find it at some warehouse discount places, but I chose just to go with a thicker fabric and then spray some over top of it. Now, the one thing to maybe consider if you're wanting to do that for pillows, is pillows are easy things you can just bring inside and bring outside if there's gonna be weird weather or something, but even with the do it's worth it to spray that stuff on it.

And you can always either do a normal pillow foam on the inside, or you could even get foam like that really thick foam that could work for pillows to make it hold up a little bit better than just like a feather pillow or a poly fill pillow that might add some longevity to the actual pillow usage itself. But honestly, I would use what you love. And I know I keep preaching that all the time but I don't think there's any right or wrong way to do a lot of things in life when it comes to creativity. And so if you make a pillow and it only lasts one season then you can make another pillow or you can exchange it for something more colorful or fun or bring it inside and use it on your own couch. So I say, just make it, experiment with it, have fun with it.

And if it's not the most perfect materials that's totally okay. So I hope that answers your question. Bonnie asking can you paper piece this? Oh my stars. Yes, you could Bonnie.

I okay, I have just recently got excited about paper piecing and I'm not precise at all, but it is like, it is so fun and beautiful and you can get really into good design. So Bonnie 100%, if you make this pillow and paper piece it, I super duper want to see it because I bet it would be really like the actual stripes. I bet your lines would be gorgeous and beautiful and you probably could make even thin. Like you could probably go like cool ombre from one side to the next and a ton of different thinner pieces. Bonnie, great idea.

So, okay lemme finish ironing this one piece right here. Yeah. And here is my front. So I'm gonna just show you really quickly how to lay this out and how we're, you know what I just realized, this is the fun part of the making. My pillow went this way.

I think this was what was confusing me. My pillow stripes went this way, these pillow stripes are going this way. So it's just a funny way to do it. So as I lay this out you can see how and where it's gonna go. And if you wanna lay it out before you sew it, 100% fine.

Basically how we're gonna sew it is you're gonna lay you're gonna put on your corner piece, right? My lavender piece or this piece I'm going to sew this part 'cause remember this outside part will be sewn at the very end. I'm gonna sew on this part right here and then just stuff it with a little filling before I'm done or before I close it off, because if you can kind of see, the pillow is of course a pillow but each one of these has a little bit of poly filling in it. So I'll show you what I mean by that, so you get the idea of it and then you can continue your four stripes. Now, Bonnie I can't stop thinking about this paper piece idea that it's really sounding like an incredible idea to do this because you can make it way more integrated.

I love that idea, anything to add color. So if you are a pinner, I know last segment I said I don't normally pin, but I do. For something like this, you know I'm gonna just press this one more time because I think all my talking maybe get distracted by all my chatting. Okay, right here, here we go. That's much better.

Right. Can you just kind of pin it into place. And it doesn't have to be exact or precise for how it's gonna fit on the very edges. I mean, as best as you can, of course but sorry just like this, just pinned it right there. And I'm going to top stitch to make sure I catch this under little, under one of three.

It's a niche top stitch around here top stitch here ,top stitch here only the fourth finish, I'm gonna put a little bit of poly filling there just to give it a little bit of 3-D effect. That is 100% an optional step but I think it adds a lot more fun. So let's turn this way. I like working with my fabric 'cause I push it out of the same machine. Not sure if that's the right way but that's how I like to do it.

And of course it's like my brother was on the side. So I top stitch to catch that lip. And then of course, when I'm on the edge I lift up my presser foot and then put it back down. My pins are on the way. And then before we're done, I'm just gonna lift this up.

And then I'm gonna add a little bit of just a very little bit of poly fill and I'm going to make it 3-D. And now this is a tip you can use batting. You could truthfully use cotton balls if you really, really really want to, but stretch it out. 'Cause when you use polyfill anytime you use polyfill if it's like a huge ball, you're gonna get the chunks everywhere. I want this to be more of like a pillow-ist, rainbow effect.

So I'm gonna stretch out my polyfill to make it a little bit more like flat if you will, then I'm just gonna put it in here as best as I can and make it, spread it out. So it doesn't look like a chunky ball. That's like super, super, super fluffy or super filled. See? So it just adds a little bit of dimension.

It's nothing crazy. You can work it with your hands a little bit. And then now I'm just gonna stitch this closed. 'Cause I left that open. So I'll just stitch it close.

There we go. So we have our first rainbow stripe right here. Now to add all the sequential rainbow stripes it's very easy and you can get the idea really quickly. I'll show you how to iron and I'll show you how to put it on and you can continue your rainbow stripes but it's very easy. So in theory, right here.

We're gonna have this top part of the rainbow will always be tucked under this part. Right? So what you could, lemme just back up for a second. Again, there's a 100 different ways to do something. If you really wanted to you could do your big rainbow stripe, your next rainbow site and working this way.

I chose not to do that with this pattern because it's easier to get your corners flush and work in this way because I'm less concerned about making sure that the rainbow stripes are perfectly on the pillow. And then more concerned about making sure that my rainbow strikes like flat because I tried it this direction and I kept running into problems where my bigger stripe kept moving it down and I never had enough space for the stripe, just because of the variance of how unprecise my pattern was and how the technique I was using. So if you wanna do it that way or if you're doing paper piecing like Bonnie was suggesting that might be a little bit more precise way to do it but this is just another way to get the same idea. So if you have another way and you have another suggestion I love to hear suggestions 'cause I totally think that's the power of the creative community. So I'm gonna iron over this piece right here and tuck it under as I top stitch around it, right there.

And then this part you can move raw 'cause as I... Sorry lemme back up. This part you can tuck under this part. So this part you don't necessarily, you don't need to iron because you're tucking under. This part you need to iron because it's gonna end up being in the top stitch, does that make sense?

This part is the area on the pillow in the long run that you want just to make sure it's a little bit that it's finished. So there's not a raw edge. That's great. If this is confusing at all in the way I explain it's confusing, just pop a question in the comments. I should back up and say, all the patterns are listed and on the National Sewing CIrcle website.

But if you're on YouTube the link is in the video description. If you're on Facebook, the video is in the chat box in the banner. So be sure just to click on that, it's more end of this four patterns are all together in that one document. So then iron this part and then tuck this part under. I'll show you how to do and if you continue with all the other steps that you have to keep going with this, with the rainbow stripes.

I'm always thinking as I'm sewing of a way that I can have my kids help me with something. And this one my son wanted to make pompoms, the pompom clouds but it was his birthday this week. So he got distracted with the toys 'cause he had new presents to play with. But next week he is gonna be full onboard 'cause next week we're making ice cream pillow and pompom sweets. So he'll be here at full force to help.

So hopefully this gives you a better idea of your of how this is being laid out. This will get tucked under and do the exact same thing that you were doing before, top stitch right here around and then you'll excuse me, top switch right here. Top switch top stitch the whole fluff it and fill it if that makes sense. So basically what we're gonna do is keep going with as many stripes. You can fill the entire pillow with stripes if you really wanted to, I'm not gonna demo every single stripe that we have today because it's a pretty quick pillow but I don't wanna take up all your time if anybody has any other questions.

So bring your pillow your stripes. One, two, three, four, five, six, 100 stripes if you want to. Honestly, this could be really cool if you start with like one color and ombre the colors, it could be less of a rainbow and more of an ombre pillow. And then just the same as last week when you are finishing a pillow. 'Cause again, I don't like to do zippers or anything.

You are going to lay your front right sides together with your two back pieces and then stitch around the outside. And it's a super quick, you stuff your pillow in and you call it a day and then you can add optional pompoms if you want. I did a part, if you are in the need to know how to make the perfect pompom I did an awesome pompom tutorial live video on the Facebook page, on YouTube. And you can access that. It's very, very easy.

Poms are like one of those things that just add extra excitement and flare. And next week, if you come back next week I will show you how to make I'll demonstrate some of the pompoms tips and tricks 'cause my son wants to come along and help. The next week I'm making a littler as a skinnier little pillow and it's a ice cream scoop with pompom ice cream cubes. So that'll be fun to play around with more color. So next week at 11:00 a.m.

join us back here and I'll show you how to make that ice cream pillow and let us know. I wanna see these pictures if you make any of these pillows. And again, if you need the instructions the PDF is in the banner below or in the description box depending on where you're tuning in from. So thanks for tuning in again, I'm Emily from Oh Yay studio. We will see you next week.