In September I finally got around to finishing up the last 4 now sew pillows. Lucky's chair is going to arrive for his nursery next week, so this is the optimal time for me to finish his fish pillow and finish my pillows for our living room sofa. I selected a fun whimsical dandelion fabric with Keith because he creates the most amazing dandelion stories for Lucky. We paired it with a bold graphic pattern.
Rather than drive myself crazy with the cutting this time, I used a colored pencil (serioulsy, I could not find a normal #2 pencil in the whole apartment!) and used the pieces I had remaining from the last pillow project as a pattern piece to draw lines on the new fabric.
I'm thrilled with the bold black and white fabrics we selected for the living room. This is a thicker fabric, and should hold up well to every day where. I love the dandelion print, it is subtle yet still whimsical. When I started cutting pieces I wasn't sure if I wanted to do the mix and match backs like I did in Lucky's room or if I wanted them to be the same on the front and back. This fabric is 56" wide, so I can fit one pillow across the length of the fabric. I knew that 1.5 yards of each color would be PLENTY for all the pillows I wanted to make. I might even be able to have an extra sham! (Hmmm... maybe this is a good idea to do with a baby around...)
After cutting out the pieces for the fish pillow, I cut out enough pieces for 4 pillows. I can decide if I want to stick with one pattern for each or swap the front and backs later. (What else will I do with the fabric? I may as well cut it when I'm in cutting mode!) Before gluing the squares, I needed to iron the fabric. I know that I will not be ironing them much in the future, but I at least want them to look good the first time I put them on the couch.
Two patterns per cover versus 1 pattern per cover. If I do a single pattern it would be easier to swap out a new pattern for my decor at a later date. If I mix and match the patterns like I did in Lucky's bedroom, then it would be harder to swap out another design if I wanted to later. Decisions, decisions!
The glue (Dritz Unique Stitch Adhesive) was a little harder to squeeze out this time around. I had to use a pin to open up the hole. I have no idea if I will have enough glue to finish all 4 (+1) pillow covers. During nap time I "hemmed" 6 of the 10 pieces. I want to make sure to finish the fish pillow as I don't want to be stuck waiting for Monday for more glue to arrive if I run out. One tube of Dritz Unique Stitch Adhesive was enough for 4 complete shams plus the hems for 6 other pieces. I maybe could have finished one pillow but since I miss glued a pillow that sort of altered things a bit.
So the new glue arrived and OH MY what a difference this makes! I think that the first tube of glue I got was defective, because it was a little hard to squeeze out of the tube. This was MUCH worse when I was making the rest of the pillows weeks after the original two. What a difference this made. WOW. This made finishing up the final 3 pillow covers go SUPER quickly.
I didn't brother pressing the shams once they were turned right side out, but I could if I wanted to get neater corners. I was just so excited to put them on the pillows.
This project was so much fun that I'm really tempted to try to make some more now-sew shams for other holidays. I have to be careful, or I will start acquiring quite the fabric stash. I don't have space to store more craft things! Good thing I have some fun creative things planned to use up my remnants from these pillows.
