Finishing "Blessed" Into a Pillow

  Good afternoon, y'all.  Earlier today , I posted the Blessed - 5 year IG Anniversary chart, and I thought I would share I how I finished it. 

 This post has a lot of photos so I do apologize. 

Now I am no expert on finishing and some of you may cringe on my finishing techniques, but  I figure it is better done than sitting in a basket of shame. Don't you? Hee ! Hee! So please, oh please do not call the CSFP on me that is the Cross Stitch Finishing Police .👮🚓🚨 If you do , I promise I will run to the hills with needle and thread in hand🏃🪡🧵. Hee! Hee! 

First, I trimmed my Blessed stitch piece to 2 6/8" x 5". I know that is a strange measurement, but I play "chicken" with my edges and have the tendency to give myself little margin because I try to conserve fabric. Anywhoo... 

I then cut  5  - 1 1/2"x 3 1/2" strips of fabric to work with. 

Trimmed  cross stitch piece and cut strips for finishing. 

I pieced the strips using a 1/4" seam allowance,  and then sewed those strips to the stitched piece.  I then squared up the piece by trimming. 

The strips are sewn. I am fixing to sew the stitched piece to the strips 

I pinned a bit of crocheted lace in place along seam line and sewed a tacking stitch down on each side. 

Pinning the crocheted lace in place along seam line. 

Tacking the lace near the edges of the stitched piece. 

After looking at my piece , I decided to trim a tad off the bottom.

I trimmed mine so my piece would measure 5" squared. 

I measured my stitched piece to determine size of backing (measurements may vary for your piece  depending how much you trim and your seam allowance). Mine measured 5 " squared.  

Measuring my piece and squaring it up. 

I cut 2 pieces of fusible interfacing like PF 44   5" squared (one for stitched piece and one for backing) 

I cut the fusible webbing, backing and muslin . 

I cut my backing fabric slightly larger than my stitched piece. 

I also cut a piece of white muslin about 5 1/4' . ( This is a tip that I saw on Vonna Pfieffer's video). 

Follow manufacturer's instructions and adhere fusible to back of stitched piece and to the back of the backing fabric. 

Adhered fusible to stitched piece and another to backing fabric .

Layer white muslin on the back of the stitched piece . Trim any excess white fabric off.  

Pin muslin in place. 

Muslin pinned in place

Placing right sides together , sandwich stitched piece and backing fabric.  I add extra pins.. 

Pinned and ready to sew. 

I used  a 1/ 4" seam allowance and backstitched at the corners.  I completely sew off the edge of the fabric . Lift the presser foot turn the fabric and begin at the edge. 

Sew off the edge and backstitch corners. 

I left a 2" opening along the seam line. Sometimes I leave the "stuffing opening in the seam line; sometimes I make a small hole  in the backing fabric after I have sewn all the way around ( that is a preference choice and is totally up to you ) 

Trim excess backing off of the pillow form and clip the corners to reduce bulk.

Trimmed and corners clipped .

Press seams open. 

Press seams open.

Turn inside out . Using your chopstick. Smooth out seams inside pillow form. 

Turn inside out and smooth out seams and corners. 

Stuff with preferred stuffing.  I pull my polyfil apart and then stuff it tightly small bits at a time pushing it with my fingers and chopsticks. Stuff until it is at the tightness that you prefer. 

Filling pillow with polyfil.

Once stuffed bring seams together and pin closed.  On this piece , I used tan cotton thread to blind stitch and close the opening. Sink your knot into the fabric and take tiny stitches along the seams. Sink your ending knot into the pillow and pull the string out the backing and clip. 

Pin seam together and whip stitch closed. 

Once I have finished my pillow, I like to turn my pillow over , spritz it with water and press my pillow with an iron slightly. This is a personal preference for a flatter look that I prefer.  -Again that's just a personal preference. 

Wahlah!  Your pillow is finished. 

Wheew , I do not hear any sirens yet!  Do  you think I did ok on finishing this little jewel? I  sure hope so.  When I finish a pillow  , I always think about my Nanny who was a doll maker and a wonderful seamstress. I hope I did her proud . I am always inspired by her many finishes that I own and treasure. 

 I also  invite you to visit these wonderful ladies who are amazing finishers and who share their techniques on Youtube.    Vonna Pfeiffer and  Helen D. .

Thank you for taking the time to see how I finished my little pillow. 

As always...

Happy  Stitching and Quilting, y'all

Melisa 

"It takes good effort to begin  and great effort to complete a task." 

Hugs and Stitches!!!!🤗🧵❤

Dedicated to my dear sister, Amy. I love and miss you so much.❤❤👼  You were and still are a blessing in my life. 

Thank you for the sweet visit.

Pin Pillow Tutorial

Happy Tuesday, ya'll!!

Today I am posting a tutorial on how I finish my pin pillows with chenille trim. 

Now I have to admit to you, I am a fly by the seat of  my pants sort a gal😀👖 so you may cringe at my finishing , but for me , I am satisfied on my finishes since they are for little ole' me.🤗  

So please oh please do not call the Cross Stitch Police on me.👮🚨 I would hate to be carted away to Stitcher's Jail where they might lock me up and throw away the key. 😩 And yikes!!! The judge might even take away my needle and thread ! What a sentence that would be! 

I also want to say there are many lovely ladies on blogs and Flosstube who have great tutorials as well. 

WARNING THIS IS POST IS PHOTO HEAVY SO IT MAY TAKE MORE TIME FOR THE PHOTOS TO PULL UP. 

Here is my pin pillow that I am going to show you how I finished.  I think it is as cute a a button. Don't you? 

Anywhoo! Let's start with supplies. 

  PILLOW FINISHING SUPPLIES

🧵 completed cross stitch 

🧵 backing fabric

🧵 small scraps of batting

🧵 Polyfil

🧵 needle 

🧵 matching thread of trim

🧵chenille trim

🧵 scissors

🧵 rotary cutter

🧵 ruler

🧵 cutting mat

🧵chopstick 

🧵 iron

🧵Spritz bottle of water

 I stitch a lot of smalls and I try to use every scrap of fabric that I can . Today I stitched "Spring " from the Border & Header section of my Spring Stamps SAL. You can tell that I left myself little workroom in respect to the edges. 

Cross stitch is ready to be turned into a pillow

This is a conscious decision so if you have an idea on how you are going to finish yours ahead of time and you know that you would like to have a lot of room between the stitch and the end of your pillow give yourself  more room around the edges. I usually like my pillows pretty tight between the stitch and the edge of the pin pillow depending on the design.  You can see on my Stamp pillows there is about 1/4" from edge of stitching to the trim. 

Some stitchers add interfacing to the back of their stitching for stability when creating pillow finishes. That is up to you . I am working with 14 count aida and am just fine not using  it on the small pillows. These pin pillows are just for my enjoyment, and I know how they will be used and displayed so I forgo that step. If I was using a thinner fabric or the piece was larger, I would certainly use interfacing.  

Now let's get down to the nitty gritty! 

1.  Give your stitch a good pressing before beginning. Measure how much room you have from the edge of the fabric to the stitching on each side of the stitched piece.  On this piece , the smallest amount of fabric that I have from the stitching to the edge of the fabric is  a hair over 1/2" . 

Measure how much room you have between stitching and edge. 

So that means I am going to cut my aida about  1/2" from the stitching on all 4 sides.  I actually counted about 10 stitch lengths from the stitching.  Use the lines in the fabric to help you in alignment when cutting. 

The cross stitch is all trimmed. 

2. Next cut out your backing fabric. I am using an old shirt today. I like to cut my backing fabric larger than my stitched piece. 

Cut out backing piece larger than the stitched piece.

3. Place your stitching face down on the right side of the backing fabric.  Yikes don' t look at my backside!! I am not a neat stitcher. Lol😂😁

I like to pin my piece. 

Cross Stitch is pinned to backing and is ready to be sewn. 

4.  Now it is time to head to the sewing machine. I have the tendency to start at the bottom of my stitch and sew a 1/4" seam around the edge of the pillow. Since I am using aida, I pay close attention to where the needle is going on my machine making sure it stays on a  particular  line in the aida  in order to keep the seam even.  I remove the pins as I sew.

Sewing a 1/4" seam around edges. 

  When I come to the corner of each piece, I sew on through and then lift the needle and pivot the cross stitch to sew the next side. I do this rather than rotate the stitch as I sew in order to prevent myself from creating curved corners. 

Sewing to the end of the cross stitch. 

Lift up pressure foot, pivot cross stitch, sew down next side of cross stitch. 

5. A lot of stitchers sew the pillow closed and cut a small opening in the back and stuff their pillows, and then they add a piece of felt or fabric to hide the hole, I have tried that , but I still like the old method of leaving an opening at the bottom of my pillow.  That is up to you as to where you want the opening to be . 

Notice at the bottom I left a small opening of about an inch ( I am comfortable working with that small of a hole) . 

The pillow is sewn with opening at bottom . 

6. Trim excess backing fabric on each side .

Trim excess backing fabric . 

7. I then cut  a small snip off of each corner to reduce the bulk. 

Snipping off the corner of my cross stitch. 

The corners are snipped. 

All 4 corners snipped. 

 8. Now turn the stitch to the right side through the small hole in the bottom of the piece.

Pillow is ready to be stuffed. 

9. Using my fingers and chopstick , I smooth out the edges inside the pillow being careful not to poke through the fabrics. 

10.   I begin stuffing by adding scraps of batting to the upper corners of the stitched piece. I pack the corners as tight as possible. 

Fixing to add scrap pieces of batting to the top corners of the cross stitch pillow . 

11. Next I begin to pull apart my Polyfil making it as fluffy as possible .  You remember the bowl I started with. Well here it is all fluffed up. 

Fluff up your Polyfil by pulling it apart. 

12. I begin stuffing the pillow with polyfil beginning at the top corners of the stitched piece which are already filled with batting.  Use your fingers and chopstick . Pack as tightly as possible.

13. As you near the bottom of the stitch, add batting to the bottom corners of the stitched piece , stuff tightly and then  continue adding Polyfil until you are satisfied with the feel of the pillow.  I like mine tight. 

14.  Using matching thread and your needle, whip stitch the opening closed. I try to make my stitches as small as possible so they do not show. But if you are adding it trim , they will not show anyway  and today I am adding trim.  There are several videos on Youtube on how to do the whip stitch. 

Whip stitch the opening closed. 

ADDING CHENILLE TRIM

 15. I bought my cream chenille trim from Walmart a couple of years ago . One skein will last a loooong time. 

I am ready to add chenille trim to my pillow. 

I begin by giving myself a generous amount of chenille trim. I didn't officially measure on this piece , but you can  see that I looped the chenille around the stitch 2 times  .Lots of trim there.  I then tea dyed my trim to tone it down. 

Chenille trim ready to be added . 

 16. I fold the chenille trim once  to create 2 strands. 

Fold chenille trim in half once. 

17. I begin my twisting the ends of my trim and whip stitching it to the bottom of seam of my stitch. 

Twist ends and whip stitch to bottom seam. 

I then twist the trim away from me. I work with small sections at a time twisting, pinning and then whip stitching until I get to the corner. 

Twist, pin and whip stitch the trim down. 

As I whip stitch I try to make my thread go along with the twist of the chenille. I begin with my thread in the front of the pillow, loop it around to the back of the pillow through the seam to the front .

Use thread that matches trim and try to make your stitches follow the direction of the twist of the trim.

19. Once I reach a corner, I remove the pins  ,  turn the chenille and continue twisting and I add pins to the next edge repeating the process of whip stitching to the next corner. 

I have reached the 1st corner. Turn and twist trim . Repeat process. 

Adding trim to the next side. 

 

20. As I come to the end , I slightly overlap the end of the chenille to the beginning of the chenille trim and pin it in place. You can see I still have a lot left over. I whip stitch over a small section of the  overlap. 

Overlapping the trim slightly , Whip stitch in place. 

21. I leave the needle in place and then carefully cut the excess trim away from the pillow.  

 Cut excess trim and whip stitch any of the chenille trim left into place. 

22. Sew the edge of the trim down. Tie off and  sink knot into the pillow . Remove needle and thread. 

23. If you like your pillow to be puffy, you are finished. If you want to flatten it a bit then get out the trusty ole' iron and a spritz bottle of water. 

Lightly spritz the back of your pillow and press with iron if you want a flatter pillow. 

Lightly spritz your pin pillow with water on the  back and then press the iron onto your pillow. 

The back of the pillow. 

24. Wahlah! Your pin pillow is finished!!!!  HAPPY DANCE TIME!!!! Cha! Cha! Cha! 💃💃💃💃💃

Wheeew! No sirens yet!   Cross Stitch Police Adverted!!👮  I think I am ok. 😀

I truly appreciate you taking the time to see how I finish my pin pillows. 

I know I have been posting a lot lately . I will try to slow down once  the SAL is over with. 

Thank you for  dropping by . Have a wonderful day and ...

As always...

Happy  Stitching and Quilting, ya'll

Melisa

Thank you for the sweet visit. 

The only way to finish is to start. 

Hugs and Stitches!!!!🤗🧵❤

Dedicated to my baby sister, Amy. Love and miss you, Amo.