I want to share with you how I made a beautiful pillow using fabric scraps as applique. I love this technique because I can use little pieces of fabric that I love and repurpose them into something completely new.

Materials and equipment:

• Sewing machine
• Iron on fusing
• Iron
• Fabric for pillow and for fabric applique (100% cotton)
• Pillow insert

Step 1:

Gather all your materials. For this tutorial I have used 100% cotton base fabric for the pillow and 100% cotton fabric scraps for the applique.

Choose your fabric scraps to create the applique. Fuse the fabric scraps using the iron on adhesive fusing. Make sure that you fuse the underside of the fabric.

Cut the pillow top cover. My pillow is a perfect square 36 cm by 36 cm.

You also need to cut 2 pillow back covers. My back pillow covers measure 36 cm by 26 cm.

Step 2:

I love making applique flowers so for this tutorial I created a couple of fabric flowers.

Draw petals on the paper side of the iron on fusing. Cut around the drawn line and place the fused petals on the base fabric.

Once you are happy with the placement take a photo so that you have a guide of your design.

Now start by peeling the paper backing from each of the pieces and fusing them to the base fabric one by one using a very hot iron.

Work in layers. Start by fusing the under petals and layer them up in order to build the beautiful flower.

Step 3:

Once you have fused the whole flower you need to top stitch all around the flower design. You can do 1 row of stitches or you can do a couple. Whatever you prefer 🙂

Step 4:

Hem the top sides of the back covers. You should have an applique front cover and two hemmed back covers.

Step 5:

Pin one of the back covers to the front cover, right sides touching.

Sew around the edges.

Place the other back cover on top and sew around it.

You can zig zag all around it or overlock/serge in case you have an overlocker/serger.

Clip the corners and turn inside out.

Press firmly. Here is the finished applique pillow.

Grab the pillow insert and cover it with the newly made pillow.

Here is my finished pillow. I love it and its now part of my lounge 🙂

I hope you have enjoyed this applique technique. Another idea is to create this kind of applique in an upcycled denim tote bag.

You can always avoid the fusing step if your cotton fabric is thick enough but I find it that the applique lasts longer when I use the iron on fusing paper.