oh Brother...

Back in January, when I had finally decided to seriously look for chairs to reupholster (I've been wanting to do this since the fall of 2010), I decided to make a purchase that would sit on my bedroom floor for two months. I bought a Brother sewing machine, basically one of the cheapest models that seemed to have fairly good reviews on Amazon. I suppose I should mention that I haven't used a sewing machine since 7th Grade... But, if you don't know me personally, you'll soon find that my approach to DIY is that you just need to believe you can do something and you'll figure it out.

Well. Tonight was the night. The night to figure it out. I decided that a good jumping-off point for my sewing endeavors (which will likely include cording and the seat cushions for the chairs) would be to make a couple of lumbar pillows to go on the chairs. When I purchased the yellow Ikat print for the reupholstery job, I also bought a yard of this gorgeous fabric that basically looks like blue paint smudges. I didn't anticipate how well it would match the frames of the chairs!

The first thing I did was make my cuts. The pillow forms that I bought were 12x16, and to accommodate for the seam allowance I added 1 inch to the dimensions (1/2 inch on each side). So the front panel measured 13x17. For the backs of the pillow covers I decided to do an "envelope" closure. This is where the back is made of two panels that overlap in the middle and give access to the interior of the pillowcase. I decided that the overlap should be 2 inches, so the finished sizes of the panels had to be 9x16. Now add 1 inch to each side for seam allowances to give a final size of 10x17 for each panel.

I would really recommend measuring about 200 times to make sure you have everything figured out BEFORE YOU START CUTTING.

The first thing I did was finish off the inside edges (see above and left) of each back panel (where the two panels are going to overlap.) For whatever reason I decided that I should only hem the edges in by 1/2". I could have easily increased that amount in order to make it less of a delicate job, but I went slowly and I'm happy with the results. Once that edge has been stitched (the right edge of the left panel and the left edge of the right panel), its time to start putting the whole thing together. At this point I laid the front panel down nice side up and placed each of the back panels on top right side down. I lined up the left edge of the left panel with the left edge of the front panel and did the opposite with the right panel. The next thing I did was take my tape measure and measure out a 1/2" seam allowance all the way around the perimeter of the case.

Once this the three panels had been stitched together, I trimmed the corners at 45 degree angles, careful not to clip the seams, and turned the case inside out. The pillow form pops in, and that's it! Instant (or maybe not so much) pillow!

Finished Product: