chevron pillow

I'm a "small project" kind of girl. I like to start something and finish it within a reasonable amount of time. When I stumbled on this Chevron Quilt tutorial I was so amazed that I knew I had to try it. For me, a quilt was too big of an undertaking. I decided that a pillow would be a great way to test it out without the commitment to a large project. I have large project commitment issues. If you'd like to make a chevron pillow, follow along :) ___________________________________ Here is what you'll need: 2 fat quarters (complimentary fabrics) for the front enough fabric for the back panel of the pillow (mine was 17" x 17") straight pins rotary cutter & mat sewing machine pillow form zipper (optional) ___________________________________

*** NOTE: I had a bunch of old pillows on hand, so I made my cover to fit a 16" pillow form ***

[1] I really didn't know what would be the best size block to make, so I decided that a 3" block sounded good. To get a 3" block (using 1/4" seam allowance) I cut 1 3/4" strips of both fabrics. I then sewed the 2 fabrics together to get long strips. I then pressed my seems flat.

[2] Once I had about 7 or 8 strips sewed, I started cutting them into the 3" blocks. As I cut them, I laid them out into my chevron pattern. I did this by turning each square about a quarter turn from the ones adjacent to it.

[3] Once I had enough squares, I started sewing them together. I started by sewing the squares in each diagonal row together end on end. Once all of my rows were sewn together, I started sewing the long rows together. I worked block by block until everything was connected. It helped to have all of my blocks laid out in the correct pattern - that way, I could just pick up the next one in line. It helped to cut out any confusion.

[4] Once everything was sewn together, ironed everything nice and flat and cut off the extra points on all sides of my fabric to get nice straight edges. You want to end with a piece of fabric that is 1" bigger than your pillow form. In my case, my chevron front was about 17" (for a 16" finished pillow).

[5] After the front was assembled, the rest was a piece of cake. I sewed my zipped pillow cover (using a full piece of my grey fabric for the back) and admired my new pillow:

Now I need to decide where this new pillow is going to live... 

[p.s. this post may be linked to any number of these blogs]