Personalized Pillows: Part 3

Today I'll show you the final steps to finishing the personalized pillows.  I have a pair of finished pillows all done and ready to ship out tomorrow.  They are a surprise for a brother/sister duo (and I think their mom is going to be surprised too.....their daddy ordered these.)  You can read about the previous construction steps HERE and HERE.

After the fabrics have been selected and the letters cut and ironed onto the backing fabric, I applique around each letter to adhere it to the backing fabric.  In the photo below you can see a pin near the right side.  I use a tear-away stabilizer on the back which keeps the base fabric from puckering during the applique process.  This makes a BIG difference in the finished product.

Next I make the pieced border.  I cut strips of the letter fabrics (3" wide) and then cut these strips into 4 or 5 inch pieces.  The pieces are then stitched together end to end as shown below.  After sewing a long strip of these, the threads must be clipped and the seams pressed open.

Then the border is ready to attach to the name piece as you can see in the photo below.

I don't have a photo of the next step, but after the border is attached, I cut a piece of backing fabric and stitch the front and back together, leaving a space for stuffing.  Then, the pillow is stuffed with polyfil and hand-stitched closed.  The next two photos show the finished pillows.