Fabric weaving plus decorative stitching in the ditch packs a powerful color punch! Start with one 40-piece jelly roll bundle, and with clever seaming and slicing, end up with two different, yet completely coordinated 20” pillows.
Sweet tweets! Check out this cute pattern in our Etsy Shop. You’ll pick six favorite floral fabrics to create these fine feathered friends, then appliqué them in place on a pair of stitched telephone lines.
Here’s a wonderful way to freshen up your space – indoors and out. Our pillow design features criss-cross lacing along the front closure to add a nautical spin. Bold stripes, cut in different directions, are a perfect fabric choice.
Make a goal to surround yourself with home décor that makes you smile. Our colorful mini bolster is a great start to your happiness project. It looks quite fancy with a ruched center panel, piping, and pony tail ends, but it’s so easy.
We created a beautiful abstract flower design with a bit of a whimsical feel – perfect to render in the soft texture of a quality wool blend felt. Rendered in striking solids, this appliquéd pillow makes a stunning statement.
If you’re happy and you know it… make a pillow. This is what we envision Little Miss Muffet’s tuffet must have looked like. A little bit cushion and a little bit pillow in one! Gathering the top and bottom is easy!
This set of elegant pillows features wraparound cording for a unique, pretty-from-all-sides look. We selected two coordinated home décor prints within a single colorway to create a trio of pillows in three distinct shapes.
Where would you like to go today? Forget Google Maps and the ever-present GPS, give me a real map and I’ll follow you anywhere… bonus points if it might be a treasure map! We were originally inspired by the Street Maps fabric from the Dapper collection by Tim Holtz for Coats – a vintage wonderland of
Embroidery turned a simple round, white pillow into a stunning statement. Our friends at Janome America sponsored this beautiful custom embroidery design, allowing us to offer it to you as a free download in the six major embroidery machine formats. The ascending and descending triangles simulate a rosy sunrise reflected in a cool mountain lake.
For our Featured section, we’ve been focusing on projects that can use smaller pieces from your fabric stash. This lumbar pillow uses skinny cuts to create pretty strip patchwork. Wavy line free-motion quilting finishes the front.
From selecting the fabric to plopping the pillow into place, this fast and easy project is a perfect way to create Décor in a Day. We used our favorite tapering technique to help prevent crumpled corners.
Apply some old-fashioned goodness in a new way, creating a set of pillow covers wrapped in the Southern charm of classic candy-colored seersucker. We added ruffles, rick rack trim, and a button placket back closure.
Let this pretty kitty keep watch over the rest of the pillows on your sofa or bed. The bold silhouette with its sweet dimensional bow is truly the Cat’s Meow. Our appliqué design is a free download, including the lettering.
The round bolster is a great way to add a new and interesting shape to your pile o' decorator pillows. We chose a 6" x 16" cylinder, which is a classic size to pair up with a 16" or 20" square pillow. Or, make a pair of bolsters as we did and display them on
Truly the Art of Thread; this pillow combines dense decorative stitching with machine embroidery accents and cool corner tassels. A décor or upholstery weight fabric gives the proper stability – a dark, solid makes the stitching pop.
This pretty pillow is an example of fast and easy patchwork using a grid. The design is the same on both sides, but we turned one grid panel 90º to create an interesting effect front to back. Use some of your favorite small scraps.
This time of year, baby showers seem to come in waves! Stumped for a great gift idea? This adorable pillow pair is one of our “Baby Shower Power Gifts.” The basic piped pillow pattern is fast and simple and the free, downloadable animal appliqués are super cute.
One of the reasons Sew4Home came into existence was our desire to get new people interested in sewing. We wanted to prove sewing was within anyone's reach, even if you'd never even turned on a sewing machine before. It's why we're so focused on providing detailed instructions with helpful photos and make-no-assumptions steps. It's also
English paper piecing is handwork not machine stitching. Most people associate it with beautifully intricate quilt tops, but the precise, perfectly shaped pieces were just as wonderful for our pair of graphic pillows.
Freshen up the pillow-scape on your bed or sofa with this terrific trio. We blended together 13 coordinating prints with simple patchwork techniques into three different pillow shapes: one square, one rectangle, and one bolster.
Oilcloth is water resistant with a wipe-clean surface, making it ideal for patio living. “It will be too sticky for pillows,” you shout! These pillows are meant to be used as bright pops of color to decorate not for sleeping.
A “Word Pillow” makes a bright, bold statement to add to your pillowscape. We include the appliqué template for “Ahoy,” but this time of year, you could build your own to suit the situation. How about: Dad, Grad, Smile or Hug?!
Zippers are one of the trusty workhorses of the sewing world. They normally go about their jobs, opening and closing without much fanfare. But recently, it's become quite trendy to let them out from between the seams to shine on their own. Today's fancy and fashionable pillow does just that, featuring zippers on both the
Create a fast, patchwork pillow using thin scraps. We dove into our stash for leftover Jelly Roll and Honey Bun strips. A variety of decorative stitching along each seam adds a dash of color and texture. Each one is different.
These eye popping pillows are created in Candy Shag Faux Fur. The long nap starts as pure white at the base with brilliant candy colors at the tips. As the nap shifts, so does the color. Wonder if that would work on my hair?!
We love sewing by machine! It's fast, it's easy, and when you have great machines like the Janome models in our S4H studios, it's almost effortless. But it doesn't mean you can't whip out the hand needle and thread now and then. A few well-placed hand-stitched accents add a unique decorative touch. Today's lovely lumbar
Charm squares are just that: charming little chunks of fabric, 5" x 5" squares from all the patterns and colorways within a given fabric collection. A standard charm pack usually comes with approximately 42 pre-cut 5" x 5" squares. They're a real time-saver and can make patchworking projects a delight. We used a charm pack
The way you put together the fabrics in your projects can tell a little story. Our pillow pair does just that. In our story, an absent-minded French lepidopterist (butterfly specialist) is on his way to collect the final rare butterfly missing from his collection. He checks his watch at the subway stop, adjusts his spectacles,
What’s faster than a pillow. Well… cheetahs, Italian sports cars, and the time it takes for your kids to age from 2 to 20 to name a few. So, let’s be more specific. When it comes to sewing projects, what’s faster and easier than a pillow? Nothing! This pillow design is certainly quick and easy,
A classic triangle with a unique octopus appliqué plus a companion starfish pillow. Make one or make them both. Their brilliant colors and interesting shapes would be perfect as toss pillows in a sunroom or covered patio.
Use your newfound heirloom-by-machine skills from the article above to create a unique decorator pillow. We incorporated straight tucks, wave tucks, entredeux, and lush ruffles into stunning tone-on-tone beauty.
We explain three different decorative stitching options for you to try, and have included three template downloads to re-create our exact designs. Vary the fabric, thread colors, and stitch patterns for dozens of options.
This clever pillow looks complex with its intricate lattice front and peek-a-boo inset, but it’s so easy. We love the splash of color behind the lattice strips. Just imagine all the wonderful fabric combinations you could try!
Did anyone ever try to teach you origami? If so, a paper crane was likely your first, and maybe your only, project. So here's your little known fact for the day: origami is Japanese paper folding; its predecessor is the Chinese paper art called zhe zhi. The graceful crane is revered in China as the
This finished pillow may look complex, but the steps are... as the name promises: Extra Easy. If you are learning to sew yourself or teaching someone else, this is a great first project. We spend extra time going over tools and techniques, and you'll find links to other articles that can move you further along the
Like your favorite pair of sweats, sometimes you gotta have a loose fit. This throw pillow follows suit with a relaxed and roomy cover. We added 15 lines of decorative stitching and custom corner tassels.
We call this a “jewel box pillow” because of its rows of diamonds. But a diamond is just a square turned on point. So the front is really just six simple rows stitched on the diagonal. Piping and covered buttons soften the angles.
This dramatic pillow is what is traditionally called a “statement” pillow, the member of the pillowscape with the strongest flair, the one that anchors the collection. The striking fleur-de-lis appliqué is a free download.
Words are wonderful, aren't they? I especially love it when one word has lots of different uses. Take "weave" for example. In general, it simply means to go in and out. But it can be a verb or a noun or even an adjective. You weave a tale of mystery and intrigue; you can weave
When you think of patchwork, you usually think of quilting cotton. But there’s no rule! We added luxury into the mix with a jewel box blend of silk dupioni in Tiffany blue, glittering silver, burnished gold, and rich ebony.
Things that are six sided: snow crystals, the cells of a honeycomb, the Tam Tam (a six-sided matzo cracker) and this delightful star-shaped pillow. Completely proving 1) not all pillows need to be square, and 2) you'll need to get a magnifying glass or microscope to make sure I'm telling the truth about the snow
It’s the classic special touch: adding a little something on top. Pie is great. Pie with whipped cream is awesome. This pretty pillow overlays patchwork with a touch of embroidery. It’s a simple way to make a stunning statement.