return on creativity: woven fabric pillow

I've been away at Disney World.  Sounds great, huh?  Not really, I was at a conference for work.  In a rare surreal moment at the conference my hobby life and my work life were woven together when I listened a guy from Michael's craft store talk about how they replenish inventory at their stores. 

I could say that the weaving of work and hobby was the inspiration for this pillow, but I started working on it before I went out of town.

How to make:

1.  Cut the following pieces of fabric:

One 17 inch square

Six 2 X 17 inch strips

Two 2.5 X 17 inch strips

2.  In a different fabric cut the following:

Six 2 X 17 inch strips

Two 2.25 X 17 inch strips

3.  Pin each fabric strip to the fabric square, starting and ending with the 2.5 inch wide strip.

4.  Stitch strips to square along two sides with a quarter inch allowance as indicated in the picture above.

5.  Weave remaining fabric strips through the sewn on strips.  Start and end with the 2.25 inch wide strips on each end.  Pin and sew strips with a quarter inch seam allowance.

6.  Randomly top stitch fabric strips.  I top stitched every other row (shown above).  I think this was enough to keep everything in place, but not so much that I lost the look of the weaving. 

7.  Sew pillow top into a pillow with an envelope closure.

Some ideas for variations:

• Weave prints rather than solids.
• Hand stitch the top stitching rather than machine stitch.
• Weave ribbon rather than fabric

Some close ups below...



I would definitely categorize this pillow as shabby chic rather than tailored. The edges of the woven strips will fray even more over time. This white and blue pillow with red top stitching is probably going to be shipped to my mother for her American flag decorated breezeway.