Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary

cooking up a storm at the edge of the world

Applique Flower Pillow Project

Published on July 3, 2013 • Last updated July 18, 2014 by
applique-flower-pillows

The school holidays started this week and the weather, especially this morning, has been dreadful. It’s been grey and dreary and this morning it was pouring down with rain. The children need entertained! So, we got out the bag of fabric scraps and got creative, making these applique flower pillows for our daughter’s bedroom.

All the fabric is either bargain charity shop finds (one of my best fabric finds was several metres of the pastel shade Laura Ashley fabric in the right hand pillow), fabric which was given to me by friends who know I love to sew (thank you Joy, for the shimmery purple fabric!) or scraps cut up from garments. The pink flower on the left was one of my daughter’s favourite dresses when she was a toddler which was destroyed by a tomato-based sauce and was subsequently transferred to the fabric bag.

This is a great day project to do with your children, but some sewing skills are required. Get your child to draw their design on the back of some fabric of their choosing, and involve them in deciding which colour threads to use. Older children could even use the sewing machine, with supervision of course!

I’m linking this blog post up with Julia Dunnit’s What’s on your Workdesk Wednesday #213 over on her fabulous crafty blog Stamping Ground. When I first started blogging I was doing a lot of crafting and I loved linking up my blog posts and seeing what other crafters were up to all over the world. Alas, my Open University study sort of took over and I haven’t has as much time as I’d like to craft. It was getting a bit samey sharing photographs of my study desk instead of lovely crafty things! Well, today it’s the school holidays and it’s wet outdoors, so I took the day off from study and we crafted instead.

We also made a set of pillows for a school friend of our youngest’s appliqueing the child’s name on the front of the pillow, making a unique personalized gift. The only limit for designs on these pillows is your imagination; why not try making hearts, geometric shapes or your child’s favourite cartoon character?

name-pillow

There’s something about children’s hand drawn flowers that is so appealing, I think. I couldn’t draw a flower which had so much innocence and creativity in it if I tried. It would just look like a flower drawn by an adult! I love that my daughter’s drawing are now immortalised in a fabric work of art. One of these days we’ll make something on a larger scale, like a quilt!

flower-pillow-project
Applique Flower Pillow Project
A nice afternoon project to entertain the children on a rainy day and to encourage their creativity.
Supplies
  • 1 17.5 inch square cotton fabric (pillow front)
  • 1 17.5 x 14 inch rectangle cotton fabric (pillow back, part 1)
  • 1 17.5 x 8 inch rectangle cotton fabric (pillow back, part 2)
  • 1 12 inch square cream cotton fabric
  • coloured fabric for flowers and leaves
  • cotton thread of assorted colours
  • 1 button
  • scissors, pins, measuring tape and sewing machine with zipper foot, iron
Instructions
1. Cut pillow front and back parts out of matching fabric.
2. Ask your child to draw a flower shape on the back of some coloured fabric. Carefully cut out.
3. Cut a yellow centre and green leaves using your child’s drawing as a guide.
4. Layer the flower components in the centre of the cream square. Pin in place.
5. Zig zag stitch around the outside of the flower, centre and leaves in matching or contrasting colours, whatever your child decides.
6. Using your sewing machine, add detail such as the veins of the leaf. Sew lines at angles for the centre of the flower. Iron flat.
7. Pin the cream square onto the centre of the front of the pillow square.
8. Zig zag stitch around the edge, and then using your largest straight stitch setting sew a line 1/2 inch around the inside of the zig zagging.
9. Using a straight stitch in the same coloured thread, sew through the zig zag stitching on the petals. This keeps the applique in place and prevents puffing.
10. Iron a 1/2 inch hem, twice, on the long edge of each of the back pieces.
11. With right sides together pin the back sections to the front, making sure the smaller rectangle is on the top facing you.
12. Sew with 1/2 inch straight hem and then zig zag around the edge.
13. Turn right side out and iron.
14. Make a buttonhole in the top section of the pillow back. Alternatively, you could sew on some ribbon and tie it shut.
15. Sew button onto the bottom section of the pillow back.
Details

Total time: Yield: 1 pillow

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About Elizabeth

Solivagant. Foodie. Calls Shetland home.

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Comments

  7. voodoo vixen

    I love those cushions, how fab to be able to keep drawings in such a unique way. Happy WOYWW from Annette #4

    Reply

  8. Shaz in Oz.CalligraphyCards

    ah how clever is that Elizabeth.. and just realised you are little raindrop by your name on your blog pickie so good to see you again, and well how delightful are your daughters cushions 😀 well done both of you, Shaz in Oz.x #36

    By the bye don’t know if you know as lots don’t, but you have word verification turned on and is an extra hurdle when commenting!!!?

    • to remove go to Blogger -> Settings -> Comments tab – >

    • Deselect word verification..

    • and make a every visit a happier one. I really struggle doing them sometimes and so do lots of others. You can still have moderation switched on, if you wish.

    • Or if because of spam the in Comments select “Open ID” only an you will have none.

    Reply

    • Elizabeth S

      Yes, that’s me! Hopefully I shall be contributing more to WOYWW as I’ve missed it. I should be doing more crafty things with my time! It’s a tricky one with the word verification, but I was being bombarded by spam and something needed to be done. :/

      Reply

  9. Lunch Lady Jan

    I’ve only had mixed success with applique…do you ever use bondaweb first before stitching around the edge? I wondered if it made any difference? the pillows are fab though, no wonder your daughter penned that lovely note!
    Thanks for dropping by my blog earlier 🙂
    hugs, LLJ 59 xx

    Reply

    • Elizabeth S

      Bondaweb is never something I ever buy at the shops. I had some from the charity shop once and to be honest I don’t feel it makes that much of a difference. I suppose it would for larger pieces, but I was wanting to go with the homemade look with these, so any errors are works of the art itself. 😉

      Reply

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