Pillow #2

Hi all-- It's time for me to show you another pillow project!

This was my first-ever attempt at piping and I was real nervous about it.  I pictured countless frustrating hours with my seam ripper but thankfully that wasn't the case-- but that's not to say this went 100% smoothly.

What I Used
- An old skirt.  That's right, the main gray fabric you see was once a lovely(?) little number that I picked up at Goodwill for $2.  I washed it, cut out the lining, cut down one of the seams and voila!
- Cording-- I think I used 5/8"
- Long scraps of an accent fabric
- Pillow form

How the Heck Did I Do it?
1) Cut out a square for the front panel, 1" bigger than size of pillow form

Step 2

2) Fold strips of accent fabric, right sides out, around cording
3) Use a zipper foot on your sewing machine to get as close to the cording as possible.  If your sewing machine hates you, your stitch may look a little something like this:

Yucky Stitch

 

4) Pin right side of cording and ride side of the front panel together and sew.  When it came to the overlapping of cording, I did the end at an angle over the beginning in the bottom corner.  I was also a genius and apparently didn't measure well enough-- I ran out of the cording for the last 2 inches or so.  I decided you couldn't really tell and I think it made the overlapping a little easier

5) Pin front panel and back panel(s) together, right sides facing each other.  I chose to do the 2 piece back panel once again to take advantage of the hems that were already in the skirt. 
6) Cross your fingers that the super thick parts won't kill your sewing machine
7) Get mad when your sewing machine acts up, and not even at one of the super thick parts
8) Finish sewing seam and turn inside out.  Oops, some of the crappy, crappy stitches are showing... Too bad-- no one will see it any way :)

Front

Ta-Da! 
And here it is.  A re-purposed skirt looking way cuter than it did-- I saved someone from a fashion mistake AND helped the environment.  Win-Win!  I love seeing something beyond what it's meant to be(though really, fabric is fabric just sewn in different shapes).

Since this was a little stretchier fabric, the measuring ended up not being perfect, but it's not radically off.  I was concerned about the curve in the waistband, but thankfully I used enough of the bottom layer to account for that.

Back with Skirt Waistband Detail

There you have it folks, another glimpse into the bigger project I've been working on these days.  Can you tell I'm loving gray?

Until next time!