Make a free motion pinwheel pillow. Gather up your fabric scraps and dive into your button stash to create a fun, funky pillow for cheerful porch décor. Give any seat in your home a bold pop of color and style with this fun technique. It truly is a great stash buster.
Materials and tools for pinwheel pillow:
- Coordinating solid and print fabrics, scraps
- Tan wool felt, 1/2 yd.
- Fairfield – Stick Fusible Webbing
- Fairfield Home Elegance Pillow Insert, 12”x16”
- Cardstock, scraps
- Buttons Galore and More Flat-Backed Buttons, assorted
- Sewing machine and black thread
- Dritz Rotary cutter and self-healing cutting mat
- Circle cutter
Basic Supplies for the pinwheel pillow:
- scissors, fabric marking pen, pencil, sewing needle, iron and pressing surface
Instructions for pinwheel pillow:
Use rotary cutter and mat to cut two 17”x13” rectangles from wool felt.
For templates, use circle cutter to cut circles measuring 3”, 2-1/2”, 1-1/2”, and 1” from cardstock scraps.
Follow manufacturer’s instructions to apply fusible webbing onto fabric scraps using iron and pressing surface. (Note: You will need approximately 45 circles of each size to cover front of pillow.) Trace circles onto fused-fabric scraps using fabric marking pen; cut out. Trace three 3” circles onto wool felt scraps; cut out.
Layer fused-fabric circles on wool felt and fabric circles; fuse together using iron. Pressing cloth or wax paper can be used between the layers.
For best variety, vary sizes of circles layered together. Use sewing machine and black thread to freeform sew around edges of circles.Thread sewing needle with black thread. Insert needle through back of circle and through button hole; pull through to front of circle to attach button on center of layered circle. With needle still on circle, place circle on wool felt rectangle; insert needle through other button hole and pull thread through wool felt rectangle to attach circle on pillow front. Secure button/layered circle on pillow; knot and clip thread ends. Repeat process until all circles have been attached onto front of pillow. (Note: Make sure to leave approximately 2” on edges of pillow front so sewing machine needle does not hit buttons when sewing rectangles together.)
Position wool felt rectangles together with right sides facing. Machine-sew right, top, and left sides together using 1/2” seam allowance, leaving bottom side open for turning.
Press seams open. Turn right side out. Insert pillow form. Whipstitch bottom opening closed using needle and thread.
This is awesome!!