Sand Dollar Pillow

I love shells!  If you don't know this about me yet, I love summer days spent at the beach!  And I love surrounding myself all year long with things that remind me of those summer days.
I for one have never been lucky when it comes to finding unbroken shells at the beach, so I purchased the ones I used on this pillow.

Isn't it cute!

Follow along as I make this summer inspired pillow.

What you'll need:
1 yd of burlap, linen or whatever fabric you desire
1/8 yd of off white fabric
4 sand dollars
zipper
thread
pillow fill

My pillows finished size is 19x12

Since the weave of my burlap is loosely woven and I did not want my pillow fill to show through, I double layered my burlap on the front.
Cut 2 @ 20"x13"
Cut 1 @ 21"x14" (I always cut my back piece 1" bigger)
Use scrap to cut 2 zipper stops. 3 1/2"x 1 1/8"
Off White Fabric
Cut 2 @ 13"x3"

Since burlap tends to frey a lot, I serged all around my pillow pieces.  I serged my 2 front layers together.

My banding on this pillow is 1 1/2" wide, but I cut my pieces 3" wide so that when I pressed under the long edges it would not leave shading behind it.
Press one long edge of the banding approx 3/4".

Now press the other long edge over to join that edge.

Turn the banding over and make sure it looks straight and uniform.

Measure and pin the banding about 5" in from the sides.  I think if I was doing this pillow over again I would have put the banding a little farther over.

Pin it well, cause it might slip around a little when you go to stitch it.

Top stitch close to both long edges.

I hand tacked the sand dollars on after the pillow was completely constructed.
You can find the instruction for finishing the construction of the pillow here: http://sew-passionate.blogspot.com/2011/12/how-to-sew-basic-pillow.html

After you have finished your pillow, place the sand dollars where you want them.  I used some painters tape to hold them in place until I could hand stitch them.

I hand stitched them through the 2 holes at 11 and 1 o clock.
Stuff your pillow and you are done!

It's feeling a little like summer at my house already. Pin It