A Sewing Experiment: Pillow Covers

Spiderweb and "Jolly Rodger" pillow covers.

I received a Halloween table runner in October, and was surprisingly happy with how festive it looked on the table with a pumpkin seated squarely atop it. When I rolled it up and it stored away in almost no space at all, I decided that this was definitely my style of decorating – easy to set up, easy to put away, with very little storage space required.

That got me thinking about theseadorable Halloween pillow covers I saw and pinned ages ago. I didn't get around to attempting them prior to Halloween, but thought maybe I'd run out the weekend after and try to pick up appropriate fabric when it would theoretically be on sale. My Prince went with me to check out a quilt store which it had been on my list to explore anyway. The store turned out to be excellent and, as so often happens, instead of coming away with the basic colors I'd planned to get, I came out with something much better! Eric bought me not only some awesome spiderweb fabric, but ½ yard each of four beautiful Fall fabrics!

Thus, I returned home to make not only Halloween pillow covers, but Fall ones as well. Unfortunately, the tutorial I'd planned to follow was not as well laid out as I'd expected, and it took me several tries to figure out where I was misreading it and correct myself. Once that was done, the two spiderweb pillow covers came together pretty quickly. Then I (mystifyingly) got it into my head that to go with the them, I should make Jolly Rodger pillow covers! This involved finding, resizing, and printing a skull template; acquiring some white fabric; tracing said skulls onto said fabric; touching them up with marker to outline a few things (like the eye sockets); then cutting them out and appliqueing them on to the front of the covers. I know that would be a quick and simple process for someone with more experience, but it took me quite a while!

Colorful squash & Fall veggies

I'm extremely pleased with how they turned out, though! I intentionally used a rough zig-zag stitch around the edges of the skulls to go with the battered pirate-flag-style look and I am quite happy with the results. Once I tested them on the pillows (and got a picture or two), it was time to strip them off and pack them away until next year. I'll pull them out next Fall and be very happy with myself all over again. : )

In the meantime, we have four beautiful pillow covers in Fall patterns featuring squash and other autumnal veggies, and fun harvest-y things. They don't necessarily go with anything, but they don't clash either, and they make us happy, so I'm calling them a success! 

After cleaning up the huge mess that I made in the process (so much thread, everywhere!), I took a couple minutes to write down the process, measurements, etc. in my new sewing journal. Apparently, sewing journals are supposed to be a great way to track what you did as that you either (a) can do it again if you love it, or (b) know what NOT to ever do again if you botch things! Either way, this has been a good experiment, and left me ready to plot my next.

Do you decorate for Fall/Thanksgiving?

Totally love this fabric!

 

In this color too!