G is for Good Night

We're moving right along with the A to Z Challenge! It's "G" day today and I'm sharing a pair of "Good Night" pillows that I made for my sister-in-law.

These were really fun to make and were my first foray into pillow making. I now feel pretty comfortable making envelope pillows in any shape and size. It's a bit of a long tutorial, but I promise they're a pretty easy project.

I really like pillows. Like...a lot. I have an entire Pinterest board dedicated to them. It's a little sad, really. In fact, there will be two more projects in the A to Z based on pillows...you'll see them for letters L and R. So if this isn't enough of a tutorial for you and you want some more instructions and/or options, those will be your go to posts.

These particular pillows were inspired by a pinned post from Leslie at The Seasoned Homemaker. She has some really fun stuff over on her site and I thought these would just be perfect for a nice fluffy bed.


To get started, you'll need:

Pillows. I used 2 - 16x16" pillows, but you can do this in any shape and/or size.

Fabric for your pillows. I chose to do a solid on one side and a pattern on the other.

Fabric or vinyl for your lettering. I used heat transfer stripflock vinyl from Expressions Vinyl that had a nice fuzzy texture.

Piping (optional)

Start out by cutting your lettering. It's a little hard to see in the photo above, but I did this with my Pazzle.

The flocked vinyl comes in three layers. The bottom layer is the backing for the adhesive, the middle layer is your vinyl, and the top layer is a protective sheet to keep your flocking from being destroyed.

Peel off the protective sheet after you've adhered your vinyl to the cutting mat. Leave the adhesive backing on for this stage.

After the wording has been cut, place transfer tape over the tops of your words to make moving them off the adhesive sheet easier and to help keep your letters nice and lined up. Set your vinyl aside for now.

It's time to cut your pillows out. Make sure you wash and press your fabrics first. Yes...they look a little wrinkly in my photo above. I promise they really were pressed...they'll look nicer in a minute. The picture above and the next couple of pictures were actually stolen from letter L's post since I forgot to take pics of these steps during the fabrication of these particular pillows. Oops.

The square for the front of your pillow should be 1" taller and 1" wider than the measurement of your pillow. So I had two 17 x 17" squares of the green fabric for my pillows.

The rectangle for the back of the pillow will be 1" taller and 5" wider than your pillow. For me, that meant two 17 x 21" patterned rectangles.

If you use a larger seam allowance than 1/4" or you have extra fluffy pillows, add an extra inch onto these measurements in each direction.

Cut your backing rectangle in half. In my case, each rectangle became two 17" x 10.5" rectangles.

Create a nice edge for each rectangle by folding one edge in by 1/4", pressing, and folding another 1/4". Press again. Once you have these seams, stitch them down. These two seams will be where your envelope comes together in the back for the insertion of your pillow.

Now you can peel your vinyl from the adhesive backing using the transfer tape. Weed out all of the excess pieces in between your lettering (you can see that the "g" in "good" hasn't yet been weeded in the above picture).

Flip your sheets over and line up your wording on each pillow. Press the wording on to the fabric and gently remove your transfer tape. Press with a heated iron (you'll want the highest heat your base fabric can handle, use a towel on top as needed). Press for 20-30 seconds.

(Interjection here... This step should make the adhesion permanent. However...I learned this weekend that that may not be the case. Apparently chocolate labs are capable of removing an "n" with their toenails. No worries, it should be able to be readhered with some applied heat. Apparently my fusion wasn't complete the first run through. You can always applique the letters on by stitching around the edges if you're concerned about keeping the lettering on extra tight.)

Once your lettering is on, sew your pillows. I will be going over these steps more in depth in the letter "L" post, but basically, you'll create French seams.

Layer and pin the fabrics together as they would be seen in the final project (piping sandwiched in between fronts and backs). Stitch around the edges, then flip the whole thing inside out. Repin around the edges (feeling for the piping and pinning as close to its base as possible) and stitch again.

Flip it back right side out and you have your finished product!

Now you can slip your pillow in through the envelope opening in the back and you're all ready to plop these little babies on your bed, or chair, or sofa. When the pillow starts to go flat, just swap it out. Easy peasy.

Miss any of my A to Z posts so far this year?

1. A is for Anna (Easy Anna Cape)
2. B is for Bath (Appliqued Bath Mat)
3. C is for Child (Children's Growth Ruler)
4. D is for Denim (Denim Bib)
5. E is for Etch (Etched Casserole Dishes)
6. F is for Felt (Felt Hopscotch Mat)

Are you visiting from A to Z? 

Be sure to leave me a comment so I can come over and return the favor!

I'll see you back here again tomorrow for letter H.