Hey this is Rob with Man Sewing. And today I’m going to show you how to make this killer
applique pillow. I was lucky enough to borrow this sample from my friends over at ThermaWeb.
Thanks a lot for sending it to me so I could play with it here today at Man Sewing. Now
I want to run you through some of the supplies that we’re going to use but I have to refer
to my notes. Excuse me one second. Let’s see, what do we have here today? Now, this
is the Robert Kaufman washed, washed denim. This is the light indigo color. It’s a six
and a half ounce weight. And I have to have at least 18 inches wide because I’m going
to need two 18 inches square to make the front and the back of the pillow. I’m going to
use a little bit of this beautiful faux leather from Artistry. We’re going to make our hexagons
out of that. And also, let me see here. Oh yes, we’re going to also use our fabric
fuse which is a liquid glue to hold the hexis down before the thread does the job. Ready
to get started?
I’m going to break this down in two steps for you today. And we’re going to start
just by creating the pillow front and back itself. There’s a couple tricks I want to
share with you. So I’m going to slip this out of the way. And we’re going to start
with that washed denim. And most folks think that a pillow is made from two squares. But
that’s not exactly true. We want to start with two squares and for me I made 18 inch
squares. One 18 inch strip, cut again. And once it was folded and I came up with two
18 inch squares. Let me show you that. Now the big thing that happens is you get dog-earing
on the corners. I guess I do need my sample to show you what dog-earing means. Now dog-earing
will happen mostly if you have two big squares cut. And it causes the corners to really pop
up like that. So the professional pillow makers actually don’t use perfect squares. What
we do is we make some markings so that we can do some cutting and trimming to round
out our corners a little bit. So for myself, I’ve already pre-marked this so you can
kind of follow along. But what I did, let me move this a little, is I have taken and
measured down three inches here and over a half of an inch there. And what I’ve learned
was important, instead of just cutting, I’m going to need to mark because I need both
corners cut. So I’m going to take out a sharpie and I’m just going to go ahead and
lay a nice corner in there. And I’m going to do the same to the other side. Lay that
in there like this. Now what I have learned, because I have been practicing this demonstration,
is when I go to cut this you’re going to laugh. When I go to cut this, I’m going
to technically take one of my markings right off. So here I’ve set it up and I’ve cut
here and if you look, my other marking is gone away. So what I actually have learned
to do, keep my cutter closed. That’s one of the things you should always keep your
cutter closed when you’re not using it by the way. What I’ve learned to do is actually
make another mark right in here that allows me to know where that corner’s going to
be as I come through. Let me show you what that means. So here we go. I’m going to
cut here and now I know where that line was at a little bit better intersection so I can
get a very nice and clean cut. So this is kind of rounding the corner and that’s going
to prevent those dog-ears from happening once we stitch the front and the back of the pillow
together. Before we can stitch the front and the back of the pillow together though, we
need to put all the cool decorations on the front. A lot of us call that applique. There’s
a bunch of different ways to approach it. Today I’m doing it the easy way with glue
and then thread. So before I can put those appliques on, we need to create them. Let
me show you how I did that.
Ok, so to get ready to make our hexagons for the applique portion, we’re going to use
a two inch strips of our Artistry faux leather. And I’m going to create for myself, first
of all, a template. When you’re cutting out hexagons for a project like this that’s
going to be kind of a free-form layout, the more accurate your shape is, the better. So
if you want really accurate shapes, you could use something like this. Size isn’t going
to be as important. That’s part of your creative process, right? So these are pre-cut
hexis or if you’re fortunate enough to have an awesome die cutter, of course you could
run your hexis through there as well. But we can also do it with an old piece of mylar
plastic and a ruler. So to get this shape, I visited the internet and I requested a hexagon
template. And so I first found and printed off this for myself. It was about a 75% size.
And what I did wasn’t quite that two inches that I was after. So I got lucky on my second
guess. This one was at 80% and it finished off at just exactly two inches for me. Once
I had that piece printed out, then I decided to use just some standard mylar template making
plastic. And I went ahead and marked my points because I find that when I’m using the finer
tip and the smallest markings, I get the most accurate lines. Once those points were marked,
then I connected those points with my ruler and basically, let’s see, there we go. Oh
and by the way, you’re probably watching this at work right now, so I’m not going
to take the time to do the entire template because you probably should watch the rest
of the show before your boss catches you. So let’s just go ahead and use the template
I’ve already made. So that’s the way the template was made. When it was finished, again
two inches. And I’m learning, let’s mark this stuff so I know what it is later.
Now back to here, on our leather, basically I’m going to lay this out so that two of
the edges are running parallel along that two inch strip. And then what I do, because
I try to be extra cautious, is I will now use my ruler on top of the template so that
I may make my first cut. Now when I made these, I think I used about 4 two-inch strips stacked
up. Much more than that I found that the leather was starting to shift and slide around. And
that’s going to make it even less accurate. Now I’ve got these cool sticky grips on
the back of this ruler, so when I’m doing this, I’m going to be lifting my ruler up
and dropping it back down like yay. And so on and so forth. That was a really good left-handed
cut too by the way. Definitely not safe. But when we’re all said and done, we’ve got
a hexagon like that looking sharp, ok? I actually used about 35 hexagon template pieces or hexagon
leather shapes. So I made a bunch of them. And before I got ready to glue these on to
that wonderful washed denim, I wanted to lay it out and play with it. Because I wasn’t
quite sure how this was going to come together.
So let’s go back to those pillow fronts and get ready to lay out. And I’m going
to show you another couple of quick tricks on that. Get this stuff out of my way. And
here is one of the ones that the dog, the corners have been prepped for the dog-ears.
That’s the one I want you to use right here. Now what we’re going to do, we’re going
to take this over to our pressing board or our ironing board. And I’m folding it in
half. Remember your corners may not match up perfect but your edges will. And I’m
going to go ahead and press this. The reason I’m doing to this is I’m creating myself
a center point and a straight line that I can visually follow without using any real
markings. Remember that leather is not real washable aka not washable at all. So we don’t
want to have to try to rinse markings off. Ok, so now that we’re all set with that.
I’m sure you can see that line there. And what we’re going to do is we’re just going
to follow that line. So the first template is almost the most important. Or the first
hex is almost the most important. And I basically dropped it right about in the center. Then
I began playing. And at first I started really tight like this, not realizing that the next
hex is not going to fit in there. Can you see how that’s not going to fit in there?
So what I learned to do, is that actually is going to slide out. And I’m using roughly
a quarter inch gap between. So then the next row is going to fit in here like this. So
for my comfort’s sake, I wanted to make sure I had enough pieces before I started
glueing. So I literally, slowly took my time laying all of these out, just like this. And
playing with it. Until the whole pillow front was designed just the way I liked it. And
what you’ll be able to see here in a moment, I’ve got a couple of different designs.
This one particularly here is a little bit less. This is kind of where we’re going
with this one. And we’re going to use this to stitch on in just a second. This one is
actually already cured for about six hours. The fabric fuse glue needs to dry for awhile
before we can stitch through it. So that’s the other reason. I don’t want to be moving
these around once the glue is on the back.
So once I’ve got my layout just the way I like it, then I’m going to start glueing.
And I actually started with the center. Some of that paper is going to come in pretty handy
again because I don’t want the glue anywhere. So the glue goes on the back side. And I’m
going to run a bead of glue again about a quarter inch in. And this glue is nice and
lean so it goes out pretty quick. You can see I’ve been drinking coffee all morning
by the look of those lines. And then what I like to do is use my tweezer. And please
notice, all the other pieces are basically still in place. I’m going to drop that down,
just like that. And then I’m going to go around the rest of all these hexis one at
a time, glueing them and placing them back, glueing them and placing them back. The more
accurately you do this, the easier the stitch process is going to be.
You ready to see that? Ok, so as these are starting to cure, like I said, I’ve pre-prepped
one of these for us. And I’m going to show you how to do the stitching on this. And the
other thing I thought would be pretty cool is I found that gold kind of Levi’s denim
looking colored thread, and that’s what we’re going to use so we’ll kind of have
a real wild, wild west looking pillow for you. I’ve got to take a moment and get my
garbage out of the way because I’m a little bit less tidy than most men I know that sew,
right? So we’re going to have to move all of this stuff and we are ready to fire up
this machine.
Now I’ve already threaded it and wound the bobbin for us so we’re good to go that way.
Do, dah, do, dah, doo. Now for the first thing we’re going to try to do. I have my original
crease in the pillow. So I’m going to be able to follow that myself while I begin stitching.
And there’s going to be a little groove on my presser foot which is telling me right
where my needle is at. Now, I am a sewing machine snob so I am going to point out that
I have a sharps style needle in this machine. And the sharps style has a really nice tip
on that needle and that’s going to penetrate that leather and leave the smallest hole.
You don’t want a big stitch hole for this. Ok, and so I’m just going to go ahead and
lay on the gas. If you have needle down function, use your needle down for this kind of stuff.
And I just start watching from one point of the hex to the next. And I’m literally following
that crease I created with the iron a bit ago. And there you got it. So this is my first
line of sewing.
Let’s pretend like there’s somebody out there that’s just not comfortable with that
much free style sewing work. So it’s not impossible, that you certainly could take
a ruler, your next stitch line is going to be a parallel line and through the next series
of points there. Oh I’m having a bit of a disaster today. I keep losing stuff, there
we go. Now I’m going to use one of these microfine chalk pencils and I am not going
to mark on the leather. I am only going to mark on the denim. And it’s going to be
a bit tough to see but it will help me keep on track. And because I think of myself as
Mr. Efficiency, as well as a sewing machine snob, I’m going to probably mark a few of
these at a time. That way I can just sit at the machine and stitch and stitch and stitch.
Now unlike with a quilt, I didn’t ever find in my sample making that I had to work from
the center on both sides out. Once I had my center line, I worked one side of the pillow
and then the next. But you could see how if you weren’t real comfortable having these
chalk lines would really help you nice. Once we run all of these horizontal lines through
here, we are not going to go back through the center this way. We are going to find
the next series of points on the hexagons and we’re going to run the rest of the stitching
this way. Now I’ve already finished another pillow front sample for you. I think it will
be a little easier for you to see with everything coming together nicely. And there it is. Again,
you can see that the straight lines now are going this way. And then the next row of stitching
went diagonally and then later on, diagonally again this way.
So now that we have this all stitched together, all the appliques down, we’re going to go
back to building the real pillow. And so I’m going to take the pillow back which also had
the corners trimmed out so we won’t dog-ear. And I’m going to lay these basically right
sides together. Now the big key when you’re doing any kind of a pillow or something like
this is we’re going to need to be able to get the pillow form in and then topstitch
or, or hand stitch to finish this off. So one of my tricks is I start on a corner and
I literally knot or you know, backstitch to lock it in and then I’m going to go all
the way around the pillow this way and back past that marking. And I’m going to lock
in that stitch as well. Because there’s going to be a lot of pressure on those stitches
while I’m pushing the pillow inside. Let me show you how I’m going to do that.
Umm, k. Do, dah, dah, doo. So here we go. I’m backstitching to lock that in. And a
lot of times when you’re doing garment or home decor construction like this, you’re
taking larger than quarter inch seam allowance. Something like ⅜, ⅝. For me, I didn’t
check so we’re just going to end up with what we end up with. But it is going to remain
consistent. I often use the guidelines on my presser foot itself so that I can just
kind of see. So I’m actually looking at the edge of the foot, the interior edge of
the foot, while I’m stitching around here. Oh this would be a great time for you to grab
a cup of coffee and come back, I’ll be here for a minute. And we’re approaching the
home stretch here. Rotate, needle down. It missed. I love it. I can make anything work.
Ok, now this is the part where the opening is going to be, so again, I’m going to sew
in nice and slow and I’m going to backstitch. Now the trick to this is the smaller the opening,
the less hand stitching we have to do. And some of us consider hand stitching a four-letter
word but the smaller the opening the harder it is to shove that pillow in. So you’re
going to have to go ahead and do it this way and practice your hand stitching. So hopefully
we can see that I’ve started and stopped here. I’ve got a tie-down. All the way around
and all the way back again with a lot of tying-in so that when I get my hands and stuff in here,
I’m not pulling those seams apart. Ok?
Next step is I just kind of reach to the inside corner and begin pulling it right sides out.
Poking in at my corners with my finger there a little bit. Now there’s another step that
we like to do. And I will technically fold that under and at least hand press it if I
don’t go over to the ironing board and press it again. And I’ll do the same for the top
and the reason that is is I want to see a nice crisp line while I’m hand stitching
that part closed. From this moment on all we need to do is put the pillow form inside.
It’s going to fill it up nice and pretty. We’re going to hand sew that bad boy closed.
Or we could install a zipper. Some people will use buttons or velcro. However you like
to finish off your pillows. And you have a finished project.
Ok so as we’re wrapping up this pillow project for you today, I want to point out just a
couple of the pitfalls that I fell into while making sample after sample. First, I just
want to encourage you all to use the best possible hexagon template or a die if you
have that advantage because the better the shape of your applique is, the easier your
stitch lines are going to be to follow from point to point. And I also want to point out
that the leather is non-washable so when working with this liquid glue, I actually got a little
bit on my fingers and transferred that to the top side of some of the leather. So I
keep a baby wipe handy or a little cup of water. Something just to keep my hands clean
and the tweezers really helped with that as well. I want to share with you though, something
super cool that comes out of the creative process when we’re all working on this stuff
together. This is a killer pillow my friend Natalie made. Now what she did is she used
the Essex linen in 10 inch squares from Robert Kaufman to create the pillow top itself. And
then she used a little wool charm pack for these five inch squares here. And her periwinkle
template and so she made those appliques like that. Now these would technically unravel
so she basically zig zag stitched all around. I love kind of that rustic texture the stitching
gives to this pillow as well. So Natalie, thanks for creating a cool sample for us to
have on Man Sewing here. And with that said, we hope to see all of you back at Man Sewing
real soon.