Imperfect Pleated Pillow @ See Kate Sew

**I'm hugely pregnant and like to sit on the couch and eat ice cream instead of sewing!! Eek, so I thought I would share the pillow I made and shared over at See Kate Sew for her Pleat Weeks!

 

When Kate first asked me to be apart of Pleat Weeks, I was nervous because when I think of pleats I think of crisp and perfection. I know I am not always the perfect seamstress so I decided to use the imperfection to my advantage and I sewed up an Imperfect Pleated Pillow.

 To start, you will need roughly 2 yards of fabric in contrasting colors.

Cut them into 3 inch strips (leaving enough fabric to line your pillow). I first cut a half a yard of each, but then had to cut 2 more 3" strips. So if you cut 8 strips of each color you should be safe to cover a pillow that is roughly 17"x17".

 Sew the same color strips into one long strip and then sew the two colors together with right sides facing. (I used a 3/8" seam allowance).

 Press the hem open. Then fold the strips in half with right sides facing outward. 

This step can take awhile but the pleats look better the more you are willing to iron the strips.

Start laying the strips across your pillow and pin the pleats as you go. 

I love this part because like I mentioned above you do not need to worry about your pleats being even or being perfectly aligned. (see PINK PILLOW below for a variation on the pleats)

Once you have laid out all of your pleats you can then go ahead and sew the pleats on row by row, and overlap them to hide the exposed fabric and stitching.

And because I have a thing for pillows and switching them out often, I chose to make the pillow into a pillow slip cover  using the lime fabric on the back.

I loved this pillow so much I made one for my daughters bed (I had a lot of fun mixing up the pleats on this one).

To see the rest of the Pleat Projects, GO HERE.