In the thick of all my holiday sewing I really wanted to clear a day to create something for myself, something to brighten up my holiday home. There’s nothing like a bright Christmas pillow to conjure up plenty of comfort and joy.
You will need:
Fabric 1: 1- 1/8 yard for the front, back, and liner
Fabric 2: 1/4 yard for the letters and binding
18″ x 18″ Batting
20″zipper
BRIGHT Template
Additional supplies: Basting spray, Heat and Bond interfacing, a walking foot (optional), an open toe foot, a zipper foot, a water soluble pen, rotary cutting mat, rotary cutter, 6″ x 24″ acrylic ruler, Wonder Clips. Be sure to prewash your fabrics and batting for colorfastness and shrinkage.
I used solid white from Riley Blake for the front, liner, and backing. The print is Michael Miller Festive Forest Gem Evergreen. My batting is a scrap of Warm and White.
Assemble the front:
Cut Fabric 1 so that you have four 18″ x 18″ squares. Use basting spray to adhere the background, batting, and liner together. Quilt the layers as desired. I went with a grid pattern like on my Reversible Table Runner.
Cut two strips 2.5″ x width of fabric from your Fabric 2. Also cut a 5.5″ tall x 17″ wide for the letters.
Use the template to trace the letters onto the bumpy side of the interfacing with a pen. It’s okay if your writing isn’t perfectly straight. You can fix this when you cut out the letters. Following the directions on the package, iron the Heat and Bond to the wrong side of the 5.5″ x 17″ piece of fabric.
Draw a line (or dashes) at the center 9″ point on the front of the pillow both horizontally and vertically with the water soluble marker. Draw an additional line 1/4″ above the horizontal line and 1/4″ below it for placement of the letters.
Cut each letter out and peel the Heat and Bond paper off.
Set the letters in place. The B, G, I, and T should measure 4.75″ from the left and right side. The R and H should be centered on the vertical line. All letters should fall on the lines that were 1/4″ from the center horizontal line.
Gently press the letters with the iron. Try not to touch the iron to the purple marker. Use an open toe foot to blanket stitch the letters to the front of the pillow.
Assemble the back:
Iron each of your 18″ x 18″ pieces of Fabric 1 in half to make two 9″ x 18″ pieces. Use a zipper foot to sew your zipper to the folded sides of the fabric pieces. I used a 24″ zipper so I had to cut the end off.
Tack both ends of the zipper down with a tight zig zag stitch and cut off the excess zipper ends.
Assemble the pillow:
Place the pillow back face down and the top face up so that wrong sides are together. Use Wonder Clips to hold the layers together. Install the walking foot again to use on the remainder of the pillow. Baste the front and back pieces together with a seam allowance of less than 1/4″.
Assemble the binding:
Take your two strips and join them, right sides together, with a 45 degree angle. Iron the seam open, cut the excess fabric off past the seam, then iron the strips in half lengthwise. Machine stitch the binding to the front of the pillow with a 1/4″ seam allowance. Secure the two ends using your favorite method. Hand stitch the binding to the back of the pillow. I have many more pictures to help with this portion in my binding tutorial.
Happy holiday stitching! May your days be merry and……well, bright!
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