DIY: Sweet Little Ruffle Pillow

My sister is about to enter her 3rd year of med school in  Washintgon, DC.  (I miss her--she's my shopping/crafting/coffee & tea drinking buddy.)  While I was chatting with her the other night, I got the sense she was kind of homesick so I wanted to send her a little care package from home to help her get through the long days of rotations and sleepless nights.

 I found an old pretty pillowcase at my mom's house that she has had forever.  I thought it would be nice to send my sister something that really came from home.  Enter in this sweet little ruffle pillow.

Granted, I've never made a pillow before, but I thought I'd give it a shot. The pillowcase was pretty long (must have been for a body pillow or something) and so I just trimmed it to make it more like a mini pillowcase, but a pillow...made from a pillowcase....you'll see below! =)
(Disclaimer: My sewing technique is not very good, but I think I did alright!  Please comment below if you have any questions on my "technique" LOL!)

Supplies:
pillowcase (you'll trim this down to the size pillow you want); ruffle trim (enough for all 4 edges of the pillow); poly-fill; scissors; Fabric-Tac & pins (not pictured)

Had to get in a shot of my handy dandy sewing machine. =)

Lay your pillowcase flat and cut it to size (cutting through both layers).  I cut mine to about 14" x 16".

Cut all around until you've trimmed any excess fabric.

Turn your two pieces inside out making sure all sides match up as much as possible and then pin the corners.  This helps keep the pieces in place for sewing.

Sew the two longest sides together and one short side together, leaving about a 1/2 inch edge.  Remember to keep one short side open.

Turn your fabric outside in so that the "right" side is out.

Stuff your pillow with the poly-fill making it as fat as you'd like.  Use your hand to even out the fill so that your pillow isn't too lumpy.

Pin the open side closed.  This makes it a bit easier to sew.

Sew the open side shut making sure the poly-fill is nice and snug inside the pillow (this is about 13" x 15").

(Optional step: dab a bit of glue along the flaps of the side you just sewed to help them stay flat.  This will help when you add the ruffle trim.)

Using the Fabric-Tac, line your ruffles with a thin line of glue (to about 6 inches to start--don't add glue to your whole piece just yet).

Place your ruffles along the edge of the pillow (along the seams) adding glue and pressing down on the ruffles as you go (glue side down).  Another option is, instead of adding glue to your ruffles, you can also dab the glue along the seams of the pillow and then press your ruffles in to them.  I think this gives you more control over the glue and placement of the ruffles (I'm kind of OCD that way!)

The ruffles should lay like this, covering the seams of the pillow.

When done, the pillow should look something like this (not bad, huh?)

I decided to add a button to the pillow to give it a little bit more character.  I used a button making kit to make the button out of a piece of the ruffle.  I then sewed it through the front of the pillow to the back to give it that "pressed in" look.

Here's the package I sent to my sister: Chuao Chocolate in Rocky Road (soooo good and perfect for National Chocolate Day which was on July 28th), a hoop that I made using crochet flowers (the first hoop I've ever embroidered!), and of course, the sweet little ruffle pillow.

I spoke with my sister tonight right after she opened up the package and she talked in that high-pitched, happy/crying voice of hers when she receives a care package from family.  Needless to say, she loved her package and is probably nestling her head in her pillow while savoring her Rocky Road chocolate as she clutches her hoop to her heart--just kidding about that part, but really, she is probably doing all that as I type this.  Love my sister.

Happy Crafting!