Tuck Pillow Tutorial

Welcome to our tuck pillow tutorial. This tutorial will be for a 7″ flat door hanger tuck pillow but you can make yours any size you like. Smaller tuck pillows are good for Christmas ornaments. To recap, following is a list of what you need to make the pillow.

• your stitched piece
• main fabric for pillow - a fat quarter will be plenty
• neutral fabric for back of opening - a scrap piece the size of your pillow. I use calico/quilters muslin/homespun or whatever it’s called in your country.
• fusible fleece wadding - the width of your pillow. I use fusible fleece on my pillows as I prefer the finish it gives to the back of the pillow. You can, of course, use any batting you prefer. Something not too thick is best.
• cord for hanging
• sewing machine
• thread

 

Cut 1 piece of main fabric 7½” by 7½” for the back

Cut 1 piece of neutral fabric the same size

Cut 1 piece of fusible fleece the same size

Cut 4 strips of main fabric 7½” by 2½”

 

 

 

Fuse the fleece onto the wrong side of the main fabric piece - this piece will form the back of the pillow. I always use a pressing cloth for this step. If you are using a non-fusible batting, pin the batting to the wrong side of the main fabric piece & sew using a ¼” seam. Now treat this piece as one.

 

 

 

Fold the 4 strips of main fabric lengthwise, wrong sides together. Press.

 

 

 

Place 2 of the strips onto the top and bottom of the right side of the back pillow piece, raw edges together (the folded edge will be in the middle) & pin.

 

 

Place the other 2 strips on the sides of the right side of the main piece & pin. Do not sew yet!

 

 

At this time, you will add your hanger. First of all you need to ascertain which edge is the top of your pillow (this is only crucial if your pillow is rectangular or the fabric strips/main fabric have a one way design). Pin your cording piece between the strips and the main fabric piece making sure the cording loop is in the middle of the pillow, NOT poking out through the seam - the ends WILL be poking out of the seam and will be trimmed later (see pic for clarification).

 

Now sew all these pieces together using a ¼” seam. To ensure the cording stays put, you can backstitch over this part or sew that part of the seam again to reinforce it.

 

 

Place the neutral fabric and main pillow piece right sides together with the strips sandwiched in the middle and pin.

 

Now sew these seams using a ¼” seam, leaving an opening for turning. Trim the seams, corners & cording.

 

 

Now turn the pillow right side out and VOILA, your very own tuck pillow!

 

 

 

You may, if you wish, whip stitch the opening (which will now be situated inside the pillow) closed. However, I usually just leave it as no one can see it. Give the pillow a good press to make it nice and flat.

 

 

Now you can add your finished cross-stitch piece which, hopefully, will fit into the opening. You can secure it with buttons at the corners or just leave it. I find that the stitched piece doesn’t move much unless the cat gets at it & gives it a bat!

 

Calculating other sizes of pillows

 

To calculate a different pillow size, all you need to do is measure your finished cross stitch piece and add 1½” to all sides. That measurement will be your main fabric and batting size and strip length. The width of the strips will be 2½”.

Keep in mind that the larger you make your pillow, the wider the strips should be. This, in turn, will also affect the size of the opening so double check that your stitched piece will fit!

 

 

 

Tuck Pillow Tutorial

Next weekend will be our tutorial on making tuck pillows.  Tuck pillows are very versatile. They can be stuffed like a pillow or left flat. They can be used for Christmas ornaments and hung on a tree, or used as a door hanger. This tuck pillow tutorial will be for a flat door hanger about 7″ square. Instructions to calculate other sizes will be included in the tutorial.

You will need:

• Your stitched piece (duh!)
• Fabric for your pillow - a fat quarter should be plenty unless you’re making something bigger than 9″
• Scrap of neutral fabric for the back of the opening - calico, muslin, homespun
• Fusible fleece wadding - same size as your pillow. You can use a non-fusible batting if you prefer. Something not too thick is best.
• Cord for hanging
• Sewing Machine
• Thread/scissors etc

I’ll be back next weekend with the tutorial!

Cat Pillow

 

Stitched on Aida 55 ct with DMC threads by Teresa

From “le Idee di susanna”

finished as a small cushion with cotton fabric

Just finished!

 

Linen “Shell” Permin of Copenhagen 28 ct

Mouline’ DMC, two threads on 2×2

scheme from “Petits Cadeaux Brodès” by Sylvie Castellano

stitched by Teresa   

A pair of pillows. Click to see…

This pair of pillows will be a birthday gift. The tutorials were great as I am not accomplished at sewing! The stitched pieces are the beginning JDR Brazillian Elegance series. I don’t think I will ever learn to love working with rayon… Ginger

Tie on Pillow

Hello all, I’m a relatively new finisher and I was easily able to complete this tie-on pillow for Karen V using her excellent tutorial (found here). If you haven’t tried one of these yet, why not give it a go? Thanks to Karen and Anne for making these resources so accessible.

–Rachel V. (Willing Hands)

new finish tie on pillow

Finished an ornament sized tie on pillow and loved the instructions. Used a Homespun Elegance design for the stitched piece.  The color of the pillow and ribbon are dark green but because of the background is showing more blue.

Tie-On Pillow

This is Little House Needleworks Where There is Life finished off as a tie-on pillow using KarenV’s fantastic tutorial. Thanks Karen

Another tie-on pillow

Many thanks to Karen for her tie-on pillow class. I used it to make a gift for an exchange and it worked really well. I’ll be making more of these!

Flange pillow

I had fun making this pillow.  Thank you so much for this excellent tutorial Katrina!