Flower Pillow Tutorial

This project began in my mind about 5 years ago, and I even bought the fabric almost that long ago.  I had seen a flower-shaped pillow in a magazine, and I wondered what would happen if the petals were formed separately and also what would happen if they were formed from simple shapes like squares.  This form fascinated me also, because it is almost an optical illusion, an impossible 3-faced polyhedron, only squishy.  :)

So then, 5 years later, I started working on it.  That's kind of how a lot of projects go around here.  A few days ago, I cut out the squares and started sewing.  And now my daughter has a flower pillow, 5 years in the making.  Of course, this will only take you a couple hours.  Especially since it is undoubtable that you are better at sewing than I am!  And since I am not a very experienced seamstress, this tutorial might be silly for some of you, but this is the way it made sense to me.  Here goes...

You need 1/4 yard EACH of 3 coordinating fabrics, each cut into five 8 1/2" by 8 1/2" squares.  You could make this "scrappy" by using squares of lots of different fabrics, and you could certainly make the squares larger or smaller if you want.  I just used these measurements to fit nicely in a 1/4 yard.  If you use fat quarters, you'll need 2 of each fabric, because only 4 squares fit on one fat quarter.  Of course, if you don't care to have all the same fabrics on on side of the flower, you could do this with 4 fat quarters total, since you need 15 squares total.

You'll also need some large buttons or yo-yos or something for the middle of the flower.  I used the make-your-own covered button thingies and some scraps of my fabrics.  And you will need lots and lots of stuffing.  A ridiculous amount, in fact.

So, you'll need to press your squares in half, on the diagonal, with the right side facing out.  This is just to make sewing easier.  Also for the sake of making things easier, we'll call the green dot fabric #1, the multi-colored flower fabric #2, and the black and white flower fabric #3.

Place a square of #1 and #2 together, right sides together, lining up the pressed diagonals.  Starting at a corner that does NOT have a crease, stitch a 1/4" seam along one side of the squares, stopping right on the crease (and backstitch a little at that point).  Here I am, almost at the crease:

Now flip the whole thing over so you can start at the same corner and stitch down the adjacent side, also stopping at the crease.  The seam I just stitched is at the top of this picture:

Now turn the squares so that the seams you just sewed are to the left, and the right side of the project can be opened like a book.  Turn the top "page" so that fabric #1 is folded to the left and fabric #2 is exposed on the right.  Place a square of fabric #3 on top, right side down, again aligning the creases.  Starting from the right-hand corner (not on a crease), join fabrics #3 and #2 in the same way, stopping at the crease, then flipping to repeat along the other edge.

Then flip the "pages" so all the sewn seams are on the left and a single layer of each of fabrics #1 and #3 are on the right.  Join #1 and #3 in the same way, leaving an opening on the last seam to turn right side out and stuff.

Turn the whole thing right side out, and get a small, freshly washed child to help you poke the corners into points with a chopstick and put in the stuffing.

Stitch the stuffin' hole closed.  Now make four more just like it.

Grab two of the pillows and join them with several thicknesses of strong thread at the corners where all three fabrics come together.  I chose to line mine up all the same way, but you could make it scrappy and jumble up the fabrics here.  Just make sure you are joining the corners where three fabrics come together.

Repeat until all your ducks are in a row and they take up more room on the couch than you do.

Now loop it around so you can join the first and last corners in the same way.

Perform beta test.  This pillow looks and feels just like it did in my head five years ago.  I love it when a plan comes together!

Stack up all the points in the middle of your "flower" and stitch them together with several thicknesses of strong thread.  It's okay if this looks like a hot mess.  It will be covered up by a button, pouf, yoyo, or the like.  Ultimately, these stitches must be strong enough for your kids to put their arms through the cool little gaps in between the petals without wrecking the pillow.  Add something to the middle for looks, and you're done!!!  (In retrospect, my button needs to be much bigger, but I wanted to publish this before it took me 5 more years to decide on the center.)