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Editor: Alicia Thommas
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Tuesday, 15 December 2009 04:00 |
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These little bowtie-shaped neck pillows are nice for propping up your noggin when you watch TV in bed or supporting your neck while sleeping. They're easy to create despite the complex-looking shape. A thoughtful gift that takes only about 30 minutes to make.
I've made countless neck pillows as gifts, and use one myself every night. If you like warm and cozy, use flannel. If you're like me and like a cool, crisp pillow, stick with a quality 100% cotton fashion fabric.
Sewing Tools You Need
Fabric and Other Supplies
- ½ yard of 45" wide fashion weight cotton fabric or cotton flannel. I made one from Aqua Garden Trellis/Flights of Fancy collection, a Paula Prass design from Michael Miller, and one from Duck Egg Acanthus/Belle collection, an Amy Butler design from Rowan.
- 2 feet of 7/8" satin or grosgrain ribbon per pillow.
- Bag of Poly-fil to stuff pillow
- All-purpose thread
- Scissors or rotary cutter and mat
- Hand sewing needle
- Straight pins
Getting Started
- It's best of you pre-shrink your fabric before cutting.
- Download and print four copies of the neck pillow pattern. Cut out and tape together the four shapes to make one bowtie-shaped pattern piece.
- Using your assembled pattern, cut three pieces. I fold my fabric into thirds so I can cut all three pieces at once.
- You'll see an * on either end of your pattern piece. Once you have your 3 pieces cut, and while they are all still pinned together, cut the tiniest little V-shaped clip, about 1/8" in depth and width. This marks the spot where you stop stitching and attach the center of your ribbon handles. While you can use a marking pencil, I found this V-clip easier to spot while sewing.
At Your Sewing Machine
- Pin two of your three pieces of cut fabric right sides together along one side from one V-clip to the opposite V-clip. Using a 3/8” seam allowance, stitch from the precise center point of the V on one side to precisely that point on the opposite side. One side remains open. Because of the narrow seam allowance and the curves, sew slowly to assure your stitching line is smooth and accurate.
NOTE: This pillow is essentially a chubby triangle, which is helpful to keep in mind as you are assembling – remember you need three sides to create the correct dimension.
- Loop your ribbon to form a handle and pin on center of each V-clip with the loop facing inside.
- Stitch your second seam from V-clip to opposite V-clip to include half of the ribbon as shown below.
- Pin your remaining piece of fabric as shown:
- Stitch from one V-clip to about the center of the pillow. Leave open a 4" gap in the seam. This is where you will stuff your pillow with Polyfil. Then, finish stitching to the opposite V-clip. Be sure to backstitch (back-tack) at both sides of the opening to keep the seam from coming open during the turning and stuffing process.
- Turn your pillow right side out, and stuff the shape until pleasingly plump but not so rock hard that it's uncomfortable.
- Tuck in the seam allowance at the opening and slip stitch closed.
When finished, a comfortably stuffed pillow looks about like this:
Contributors
Aqua Garden Trellis/Flights of Fancy fabric courtesy Michael Miller Fabrics.
Other machines suitable for this project include the Bernina aurora 450 and the Pfaff expression 2.0.
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