Brroommm Brrooomm! Colton picked this fabric all by himself. I was pushing him in the shopping cart down an aisle, and he was pointing and waving wildly in excitement. Brrooom Brrooom, as if to say, Mom, don’t you get it? It’s right there! Of course. Buses and cars and trucks and things that go. . . brroom broom. It’s a nice, soft, lightweight flannel. We spend most of our time on the floor, (I have the calluses on my knees to prove it!) so I decided to make a large floor pillow. I picked a black-and-white chevron print — also flannel — for the back.
I bought one yard of each print, and a soft 24 x 24” pillow insert. I didn’t need anything else as I wanted to make a simple envelope closure on the back, and an easy flange instead of piping or other trim. A flange basically makes a pillow look like a big ravioli. Either that or I shouldn't write patterns while hungry.
Here’s what to do for a 24 x 24” pillow:
- Wash, dry, and iron the fabric.
- Cut one 30 x 30” square out of the front material.
30" = 24 (pillow size) + 2 + 2 (flanges) + 1 + 1 (seam allowances). If you have a larger or smaller insert, adjust accordingly. - Cut two 30 x 20" rectangles out of the fabric for the back, making sure the pattern is oriented the correct way. For example, my chevron fabric had to be running left to right, which was the shorter, 20" measurement.
- Wrong side up, fold the right side ( the 30" side) of the left back piece over 1”. Press. Fold 1” again, Press, pin and sew. This will be the edge of the envelope opening, Repeat with the left side of the right back piece.
- Place the 30 x 30” front fabric right side up on a large surface. Right sides facing, place one of the back pieces down, with the seam you just made to the center and the three raw edges lined up. Do the same with the other back piece, so that you’re left with a 30” square. The two back pieces should be overlapping.
- Pin the two overlapping back pieces together, top and bottom edges as well as the center to keep the fabric from buckling when you move it. Be careful not to catch the front piece in the pins.
- With a 1/2” seam allowance, sew the overlapping back pieces together, top and bottom.
- Leaving center pins in place, and wrong sides facing, pin edges of front and back pieces together. With 1” seam allowance, sew all four sides of the square. Remove all pins, trim seams to 1/2” (this will allow you to discard imperfections in alignment!), clip the corners, turn right side out, press.
- Replace the pins in the center of the back to keep the opening together. Turn it over, center and draw a 24” square on the front with disappearing marker, leaving 2” on all sides. Topstitch on the square you just drew. Remove pins.
- Stuff your comfy new flanged flannel pillow sham with insert and relax!
I’ve been much more comfortable playing Matchbox car garage since making this pillow. Hope you will be, too!
OH, and I'm going to be linking up to the Sew, Mama, Sew! Giveaway on Monday so check back to see what you can enter to win!
Brrooom brrooom,
Karin
