monarch way

I value efficiency and I hate wasting time. Having said that, I have made a few pillows. I am sure you know how to make pillows, so I am not providing a tutorial on how to make a pillow. I am going to tell you what I learned making pillows.

LESSON 1: Listen To Your Mother

It’s not that I didn’t believe my mother when she said, “If you use the stuffing rather than a pillow insert, it won’t look as good.” It’s just that I didn’t find an insert and I settled for the stuffing. So, look harder for the inserts.  Look online and deal with the sizes they come in. I couldn’t find the lumbar insert in the store but they exist and I could have bought one online.

LESSON 2: Practice Cutting And Sewing In A Straight Line

Yes, I can’t cut in a straight line. I have good scissors too- it’s not their fault. I sew pretty straight but sometimes I get heavy on the pedal, and my line gets a little crooked. You can measure great all day long but one bad cut can ruin your project.

LESSON 3: Inserts Are Good Guides

I made two lumbar pillows which are really close in size. My two patterned rectangular pillows are not the same width or height. If you have the inserts you have a concrete guide to make sure you cut out your material correctly.

LESSON 4: Use A Zipper

If I ever make a pillow again, I will use an insert and have my husband sew on a zipper. I have always left a small space open to stuff the pillow and then hand sewn the space up but zippers look professional and much cleaner.

LESSON 5: Always Buy Fabric On Sale or with a coupon

Nothing is worse than messing up a piece of material that you spent a fortune on. Joann Fabrics and Hobby Lobby have 50% sales and weekly coupons. Use them. I cannot imagine messing up a $12 piece of material.

LESSON 6: Inspect Your Fabric

The white fabric I picked out for one pillow sewing projects had spots on the first parts of the roll. I told the person at the cutting counter and she nicely skipped over those damaged parts before measuring out my yards.

LESSON 7: Watch and Make Sure Your Fabric Is Cut Correctly

During a visit to one fabric store, the employee cut my fabric so badly, I ended up with a huge curve cut out of the piece of material. This was before I realized I had the right and ability to tell people when they have done a bad job so I just took the fabric home and worked with it. But don’t do that- you make sure your fabric is cut carefully and correctly.

LESSON 8: Just Buy the Damn Pillow

If you are like me (cutting and sewing challenged) just buy the pillow. I know this is a DIY blog but seriously, I wish I had just shopped around more and I would have eventually found pillows I wanted. Part of my problem is that I am really cheap. But the amount of time and money spent on making these pillows, I could have just spent $30 at HomeGoods.

Dog beds and outdoor pillows are easier to make because they do not have to look perfect. I promise, Caroline (my dog) did not care that one of my seams was crooked. But you want to your sofa and bed pillows to look nice so just buy them.