2. Buttonhole Pillow - Pocket Pillow/ Sewing it together.

You should have completed Part 1, Making the 2 squares before coming to this section. If you haven't, click here to go back there.

We are going to make French Seams that will look like Flat Felled Seams on the inside of the pillow with a row of stitching showing on the outside, about a half of an inch from JUST the top and bottom seams, but NOT on the side seams. When completed, there will be no raw seams on any of the 4 sides of the  pillow, inside  nor the outside of the pillow.

 1. With the right sides of the fabric facing outwards on both of the fabric squares,  pin  across the top and the bottom of the pillow.

2. Sew about 1/4 of a seam across the top of the pillow on the RIGHT side of the fabric. Do the same across the bottom of the fabric, too.  You are not doing anything with the sides of the pillow at this point. We are just working with the top and the bottom parts of the pillow.

3. Turn the pillow inside out to the WRONG side to now work on.  Make another seam across the top of the fabric pillow. Repeat this step across the bottom of the pillow.

4. Your pillow should look like this on both ends of the top and the bottom on the WRONG sides of the pillow. This is as far as we are going to go when we do the sides, but, we are going to go one step further on the top and the bottom of the pillow to give it extra strength for inserting the pillow and for taking  the pillow cover off of the pillow, which will be done in number 5.  At this point, the sides of the pillow should still have their raw ends untouched.

5. Make the pillow look like a tube, with working on the WRONG sides of the pillow.  Fold the loose hanging 1/2 inch seam towards the side that the button and buttonholes are on. Sew across and close to the ends of the seam.

6. Your seam should look like this on the top and the bottom of the WRONG sides. Click on the photo to enlarge it if you wish to get a better view. You can do that anytime to any of the photos to enlarge them somewhat.

7. Turn the pillow over to the RIGHT side. It should look like this going across the top and the bottom of the pillow. We are not going to do this step when we do the sides of the pillow, which are and still be raw and untouched at this point. 

8. NOW we are going to start working on the sides of the pillow. With the RIGHT sides pf the pillow up, saw a seam down the sides, about 1/4 of an inch as you had done to the top and the bottom of the pillow in number 2.

9. On the RIGHT side, open up the buttons. Turn the pillow inside out to the WRONG side through the opened button area. 

10. Check your corners. Square them off by either poking them out with a stick from the inside or GENTLY use your seam riper to do this step. 

11. After doing that step, make another row of stitches down both sides of the pillow as you did to the top and the bottom of the pillow in step number 3.

12. Both of the sides and the bottom should look like this on the WRONG sides. Click on the photo to enlarge it if you wish to see a better view of it.

13. Turn your pillow to the RIGHT side through the center button and button hole section. The RIGHT side should look like this. Enlarge the photo for a better view by clicking on it if you wish to do so.  Almost done.

14. Now, it's CLEAN UP TIME. Check to see of you have any loose threads or the like showing on the RIGHT side of the pillow. If you have any showing as I have, as showing in the above photo, GENTLY CUT THEM OFF with a pair of scissors.

15. You should have cleaned up any hanging threads and should end up with CLEAN EDGES all the way around the pillow. The pillow should look like this on the button and the buttonhole side of it. You can see that I left the pocket on this pillow because I have the pocket buttoned up. You can see that near the top of the photo, a few inches down and inwards, near the tip of the corner, near the edge of the long pointed pedal of the flower/leaves. The buttons are a brownish/green color that match the color on the insides of the pointed flowers/leaves.

16. The other side without the button or buttonholes should look like this.

17. I inserted the memory card from the funeral home of Ed  into the pocket on this card. You can more or less put anything you want into the pocket and, then button it up, if it should have a button and button hole on it. Maybe even a tooth  can even be inserted into it, for the Tooth Fairy to find? Or a special message? A love note? A holiday greeting? That is, if you left the pocket on the pillow, to make it a Pocket Pillow.

18. This is what  the button and buttonhole side would look like when the pocket is buttoned up or there is no pocket on it at all.

19. This is what the other side looks like that doesn't have the buttons or the buttonholes on it. I didn't put any name tags on it or the like because I didn't want to take away for what this one was intended for, to be used as a

"Memory Pillow" for my neighbor. This pillow was made up from one of her late/deceased husband's Hawaiian shirts that she gave me to make this pillow up from, as shown in the top storyboard photo. Ed & Marie were married for 54 years before Ed passed away in December, 2009. That is why I made up this  pillow for Marie and why it is so special for her, to cuddle up to when she goes to sleep, and for being on their Love Seat in their livingroom during the daytime. 

The idea for this pillow came from The Patchwork Cushion Cheat Pillow which a friend posted in a Yahoo craft newsletter.

1. Buttonhole Pillow - Pocket Pillow/Cutting out the squares

Storyboard of the Buttonhole Pillow/Pocket  Pillow

Actually, either side could be the front or the back.

For the Buttonhole pillow, the one labeled

Back" is the "Front" and

Visa Versa for the Pocket Pillow,

 as it is labeled above.

NOTE: The idea of making up this "Memory Pillow" came from:

 The patchwork cushion cheat pillow

We started off with a man's shirt, size Large.

We used a 16 inch pillow, which is 40 1/2 cm

1. We buttoned up the shirt all the way down the front of it.

NOTE: I left the pocket on for doing up the Pocket Pillow. If you don't want the pocket on, remove it before doing this step for making the Buttonhole Pillow. In other words, removing the pocket is optional.

2. We turned the shirt inside out.

3. We measured down 2 inches from the edge of the shoulders, which is about 6 1/2 cm's on both sides of the shirt.

4. We drew a line across the shirt from the 2 inches we marked off in number 3 .

 I used a regular pen because we're working on the inside of the shirt and these lines are going to be our cutting lines. 

5. Because we are using the 16 inch pillow, we add an inch, which gives us 17 inches to measure down from line in number 4. Make several of these across the width of the shirt, and do same everytime we do such markings. This is about 43 1/4 cm's.  Hereafter, whenever I say the 17 inches, mark of the 43 1/4 cm's inches.

6. Draw a line across the shirt, using the markings that you made in number 5.

7. Make sure that the buttons are closed and look even from the top to the bottom of the shirt.

8. We will be marking off the 17 inches across the shirt. To do this, put your yardstick at 8 1/2 inches on the area where the button was sewn onto the shirt. That's about 21 1/2 cm's.  Mark both sides, at the end of the yardstick and the 17 inches. Repeat this all the way down the shirt where the buttons are sewn onto the shirt. 

9. Draw a line down both sides of the shirt to the bottom line that you marked off in number 8. End each of the two lines at the line you drew across the shirt in number 6. 

10. Now, you should have a square drawn on the shirt. Cut it out. Be careful and only cut this square from the front of the shirt.

11. After you cut out the front square, cut the back of the shirt out from below the back yolk and down the sides, at the seams as shown above. We are going to make another 17 inch square on this piece. To start off,  mark 17 inches  in several places down the shirt from the top edge of the shirt as shown above.

12.  Draw a straight line across the shirt width where you marked off in number 11.

13. Draw a line down just one side of the shirt, with it ending at the line you drew in number 12.

14. From that line, the one you drew in number 13, measure and mark 17 inches across the width of the shirt in several places.

15.  Draw a line down the length of the shirt from the markings in number 14.

16. You now have the three sides marked, the bottom, the right side and the left side. You should have a straight cut across the top from when you cut just below the yolk in number 11.  Now, cut out the 3 sides. You now have your second square and are ready to start sewing away.

17. Go to the next step, which starts at 2. Buttonhole Pillow - Pocket Pillow/Sewing the squares together at

 Part 2 - Completing the pillow - Sewing the squares together.

Pillow cover with buttoned up backs, the easy way.

Came across this blog for making up pillow covers with button up backs backs, the easy way. This one you gotta see for yourself. Click here to see this easy button trick Going to try it and will post photos of same when I do so.

Teddy Bear

Practicing on making teddy bears. This is the first one I made up. Used a McCalls pattern that was dated 1993 that only calls for 2 pattern parts. Patterns also for a rabit and a lamb also included in the pattern envelope. Have another McCalls pattern dated 1996 that looks just about the same and see that they have another similar one out at present.  Might be making more teddy bears up in the near future.  

Used the plastic eyes that have plastic washers in the back of them on the teddy bear. Made up the triangular nose from some black scrap fabric.

Made up a mini full apron for the teddy bear. The pine cones on the fabric are about the size of a penny. The background is a dark green with lighter green pine needles on it.  Outlined the apron with white lace. Used  white 3/8 inch wide ribbon for the overlayed and sewn on waistband along with using same for all 4 of the apron ties. Yep, used my Brother SE350 sewing/embroidery machine when making the bear and the apron.

Promised to make up a "Memory Bear" for one of my neighbors, Marie. She gave me one of her recently deceased hubby's sweat shirts to make one of them up for her from the garment. Will be putting a red heart on the bears chest with her hubby's name on it is the present plan.

There's a group called "Care Alternatives" that makes up "Memory Bears" for their Hospice patients. One of their reps will be coming to our ASG Neighborhood Group meeting on September 10th to talk to us about possibly having a workshop for making them up next month, October. They seem to have a McCall pattern that they use. Don't know if its the same one I used. Will find out on the 10th.