You Can Sew Do This: Soft and Feathery

Brandon is officially a quarter of a century old! -- as of about two months ago, that is-- Brandon had received this really large feather pillow as a Christmas present a year ago and it was great! But we noticed that it had no problem poking the feathers through the pillow itself and pillow cases (even if we put 2 or 3 pillow cases on!!) so we knew something had to be done. I did some research on how to make a good feather pillow. Fortunately, my mama taught me (and my brother ;) how to make pillows when we were younger -- all hand stitching mind you. So I knew the basics of making a pillow and I set to work! I made sure to get the recommended material, 100% cotton ticking, and my mama had given me her old sewing machine so I thankfully didn't have to do it by hand! I made the pillow with relatively few problems-- let's just say it was a good learning experience. Brandon helped me stuff it with the feathers from the old pillow and I closed it all up! I laid on it to test it, it was super thick and fluffy, but it didn't take long before the feathers began poking through. Goodnight, I was so annoyed! All that I tried to do to prevent feathers from coming through was futile. But I didn't give up! I let Brandon think that, of course, because his birthday was coming up....in a month. (and I'm a huge fan of surprises!) I set out to do more research and I inspected my own feather pillow that had been bought at Belk. I've had it for years and its been plenty fluffy and rarely ever pokes me. I noticed that the outside layers looked as if it was a quilt for a pillow. Here is what I came up with and applied to my second attempt!

First, I got some more the the blue and white striped cotton ticking. But I also got some quilting batting, I just went for the cheap stuff.  Lastly, I purchased a curtain that had the black out material in it. There's probably a place to buy that type of material without getting a whole curtain, but my options were limited, AND the curtain is still useable (just don't look at the bottom-half of the black out curtain behind the regular curtain)! With all my materials purchased, I cut out the material. Most average/standard size pillows are 20 in x 26 inches, keep in mind that you want to make each side about 1- 1.5 inches longer just to give you leeway for any mistakes and for hemming. After the cotton ticking is cut out, you want to do a zig-zag type of pattern on all the edges to prevent any unraveling of the material. After sewing up the edges, go ahead and wash, dry, and iron the material. The washing will take out any stiffness in the material and take care of any shrinkage that may happen. Ironing will make it flat of course, and therefore making it easier to sew. Sewing with crumpled edges is impossible! Next, you want to cut out the quilting batting and black out material layers.

 

    

Once they are all cut out, stack them on top of each other, the batting obviously going in the middle. You want to sew all the layers together, I had a little issue keeping all the layers aligned properly. But then I'm also no pro at sewing, I've only done a couple of sewing projects on my own.

After the layers are all aligned and sewn together, fold it over so that the inside is on the outside and you want to sew all the sides, except for keep at least half of one of the shorter sides open because you gotta stick the feathers in somehow! Or the polyester filling or whatever you're wanting to use on the inside.

 

Almost done! Turn it inside-out and its feather stuffing time! Word of advice, do this outside!!! It will get messy, I promise you. The ground, the air, and your clothes will all be covered in feathers. So keep your mouth closed! Also, try to make sure it's not very windy outside for obvious reasons. Once all the filling is in the pillow you can finally sew up the last opening edge.

This last time I just hand-stitched it because I was tired of the sewing machine (we have a love-annoyed relationship). However, I would advise you stitch it by machine. I will probably go back over mine in the near future. The machines can do a lot tighter stitches than you can and so the feathers have a harder time coming out. And viola! You're done! The pillow has turned out pretty great really! The feathers have to work really hard to get through. I will say the pillow material was kind of stiff because of the black out material. I'm sure there is a way to take away the stiffness, I just don't know about it. Good job! Enjoy that pillow you just made, I know Brandon has been ever since his birthday. :)