Ruffled Golden Pillow ~ Our Family Four

I shared this pillow a few weeks ago as a part of The Sincerest Form of Flattery series over at KoJo Designs. It was a whole series dedicated to knock off projects, and had some amazing stuff in!

I modeled my pillow after this one from Pier 1.

Lovely right?! But at $30 for one, it was pretty well out of the ole' budget, but I was up for the challenge! I actually really enjoy browsing Pier 1 for inspiration, and then heading over to Hobby Lobby or Michaels with my 40% off coupons and seeing how I can pull it off with less cash. This day was no exception. So I made this.

Like it? Read on for the details!!

I found this golden yellow polyester satin material at JoAnn Fabrics, and purchased 2 yards with my 40% off coupon. I got some matching thread and headed home. I already had a pillow that was pretty darn squashed and knew it would be a good candidate for receiving a ruffly makeover.

I folded the fabric lengthwise and then folded it again so that there were 4 strips of fabric on top of one another. I then used my rotary blade to cut long strips that were 2 inches wide until I had a big pile. I also cut out 2 rectangles that were the size of the pillow +1 1/2 inches to make the pillowcase.

I lit a candle and lightly seared the top edge and sides of the long strips of fabric to keep them from fraying and add just a little stiffness to the fabric. I moved the strips along quickly so that there wasn't a thick melted line along the edges and it wouldn't curl up and darken. (This is a great technique for making flowers, but not what I was looking for for my pillow.) I took a long strip of fabric and pinned it just below the corner of the pillowcase, folding the bottom over in a few spots to give it a slightly ruffled look.

I then took it to my sewing machine and sewed a straight stitch across the ruffles, stopping about a half inch away from the edge of the pillow, and backstitching to secure the fabric.

I then folded the fabric back over the first row of ruffles, pulling it down slightly to show off the row above it, and pinned it into place with more pleats along the bottom. I went back to the sewing machine and sewed that row down as well, being sure to backstitch at the beginning and end of the row. I repeated this process over and over until one corner of the pillowcase was covered with ruffles, never cutting the strip of fabric at the end of a row, just continuing to fold it over and start a new row.

I wanted my rows of ruffles to lay flat around the edges of the pillow but pop up more towards the center of the pillow. So as I was sewing the rows that were towards the center of the pillow, I would lightly tug the bottom of the fabric to the right so that the ruffled top popped up a bit more, and would sew it from there. I also made sure that there were just a few pleats in the rows on the edge of the pillow, but lots of pleats in the center rows to give a much more full and ruffled look.

Like this.

I repeated this method on each of the 4 corners of the pillow until the ruffled sides ran into one another.

I then pinned a long strip of fabric all around the center of the pillow to fill in the gaps, and continued to layer the ruffles in a circular pattern until I reached the middle of the pillow.

Eventually there was a small section in the center of the pillow that was too small for me to sew on my sewing machine.

So I grabbed another strip of fabric and started rolling it into a ruffled flower, stopping periodically to secure the ruffles in place with a few stitches.

I kept rolling the flower until it was big enough to fill the center of the pillow and hand stitched it in place.

I then pinned the right side of my 2 pieces of fabric together, being careful to fold down the ruffles that were towards the edges of the pillowcase, and left a half inch seam allowance around the edge. I left an opening large enough to stuff in my pillow insert, and straight stitched around the edges. I flipped the pillowcase right-side out, stuffed in my insert and hand stitched the opening closed.