Ruffled Flower Pillow

Dress Up a Room with a Lovely Flowered Bolster Pillow

This is a cute decorative accent pillow for your bed or a chair. Note that I said "decorative". If you let people lie down or lean against it, the pretty ruffles will be flattened over time.

One or two of these make a great (but inexpensive) house warming gift if you know your friends' colors.

Ruffled Pillow Materials

• ¼ yd. each of light pink, dark pink and white flannel
• ¼ yd. print flannel
• Needle and thread - any color for the flowers, matching color for the pillow
• Scissors
• Button thread - any color
• Large eye needle
• Sewing machine
• Polyester fiberfill
• Fray Check - optional
• Low temperature glue gun or Aleene's Fabric Fusion

How to Make the Pillow

Cut two pieces from the print flannel that are 7 ½ inches x 18 inches. This allows for a ½-inch seam around.

Sew right sides together stitching around three sides leaving one end open. Cut across the corners close to the stitching and turn right side out.

Press flat. Stuff the pillow with fiberfill until nice and plump. Hand stitch the opening closed.

With the remaining three fabrics cut 1-inch strips from selvage edge to selvage edge. For this size pillow I used 14 strips. You can make the pillow any size you want and make more or less flowers.

Using the button thread and large eye needle make a ¼-inch running stitch about ¼ inch from the bottom of each strip leaving a knot at one end. This can also be done with the sewing machine on the longest stitch length.

Pull the loose end of the thread to gather each flower enough to make each strip about 14 inches long then make a knot in the thread close to the end of the strip.

For the center of the flower start by smoothing out any gathering from one end and roll the end twice to form a tight center.

Take a needle and thread and run a stitch or two back and forth through the bottom of the flower tacking it in place.

For the rest of the flower push the gathers up to the flower center and continue to roll and tack through all thicknesses.

It is best if you make one complete roll (row of petals) and then tack in place. You can make them as tight or as loose as you want to make smaller or larger flowers but be sure to tack after each roll.

When you come to the end, tack the end really well. Run several more stitches through all the thicknesses and pull tight.

Glue the flowers on the pillow in a wave effect. Ten add the remaining flowers for extra thickness in a few areas following the photo at top.

You can now add green felt leaves or other embellishments if desired.

Flannel tends to fray; so if you do not want this look you can add Fray Check just to the outer edges of the flowers. Fray Check is undetectable when it dries.