Monogrammed Pillow {My first sewing adventure}

I DID IT! I DID IT!

I sewed something all by myself... meaning without my mom's help! Woohoo! Before you get too excited, I made a pillow. If you sew, you are going to laugh (if you aren't already) because it is so simple but this was a big deal for me as I am just learning how to sew and I have never sew something on my own. You have to start somewhere right? So I am excited!

One of my sorority little sisters, Jessica, is getting married and I was invited to her shower which happened to be themed a Monogram Shower! I knew as part of her gift I wanted to make her a throw pillow with their married couple monogram on it. So off I went to get some thin muslin, thick muslin, and pillow stuffing. I planned to make the pillow insert too instead of buying a pillow form... thrifty I know!

I used the thick muslin for the outside pillow and thin for the insert. After cutting 2  13x13 squares (for my 12x12 pillow finished pillow) of each type of muslin, I used my Silhouette machine to create a stencil of their monogram. Then I freezer paper stencilled it onto one of the thick muslin squares and used dark brown paint. Here is how I freezer paper stencil.

just began painting

painting complete!

Meet Bertha, my Bernina! (Yes I like to name things... like our cars, the portable heater, etc.) Next I pinned the "right sides" together. I did this same thing for the pillow insert... basically this whole process was like making 2 pillow covers. Since I'm a newbie, I pin A LOT.

Bertha

Next I sewed around with a straight stitch and left an opening on one side as you can see above where there are no pins. I did a 1/2 in seam.

Then I cut the corners of the seam allowance and I turned the pillows inside out (so the right side would be on the outside). For the inside pillow I needed to use the opening to stuff it and then hand stitch it closed. For the outside cover I needed to use that opening to stuff the inside pillow in and then I hand stitched that closed as well. I have to admit that the hand stitching was by far my least favorite part. I think next time I will do pillows with overlapping back fabric so there is no hand stitching (and also you can swap out pillow covers easily that way).

All in all I think it turned out really nice! And I really enjoyed sewing on my machine. I rethreaded it and everything and didn't mess anything up :) Just in case yall are wondering... for a married couple monogram it goes: wife's first initial, big married last name initial, husband's first initial.

I see many years of wonderful sewing for Bertha and I!

Me and the Bride To Be at the shower:

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