Birthday Pillow and How to Make a Custom Pillow form .

For my birthday my sister sent me this beautiful pillow cover.

She said she found it Anna Maria Horner's website and thought it would be something I would like.  Boy would I! I love it!

 She did such a great job embroidering it all.   

It is really incredible I think.

I just love looking at it.

I told her to send it unstuffed and I would make a pillow form for it here.  I like rectangle pillows, but you just can't find large rectangle pillow forms at the fabric store so I turned an old pillow into a custom rectangle pillow form.  This is so easy to do.  I took some pictures to show you just how I did it in case you have an old pillow lying around that needs a new life.

I measured the pillow cover (15" X 20") and made the form to be the same size as the finished cover.  Luckily the existing pillow happened to be same length the cover so I only had to alter one side. I cut through the pillow at the desired width.  Just chopped right through the whole thing with sharp scissors. First the outside fabric and then the batting.

Then you pinch the fabric together and fluff up the batting inside, pushing it away from your the fabric edges.  Now you can add more batting if necessary until it's as fluffy as you want it.  Pin the fabric edges together and stitch it closed.   I first ran a straight stitch about 1/4 inch away from the edge and then serged the seam to keep it from fraying.  Zizag stitching would work instead of serging.   It doesn't matter if it's perfect. No one will see it. :)

And there you have a custom pillow form to stuff nicely into a beautiful pillow

Thank you Rachel for my beautiful pillow!  Did I mention that I love it!