Sweater and Leather Pillow

 

Finished pillow

     My daughter-in-law gave me a sweater that had shrunk in the wash.  It sort of fit me but was way too scratchy.  I decided to make it onto a pillow.

Shrunken sweater

Hooped for embroidery

     I cut apart the sweater and hooped it with sticky stabilizer to stitch the design that I had chosen.  After stitching the design I cut the center piece.  I framed it with some faux leather that was in my stash.  

Special needle

Teflon foot

 

     To sew the faux leather I need to use a leather needle and my teflon foot.  This made the sewing so much easier.

Embroidery detail

Top-stitched seams

     The embroidery design I used was a bike chain heart from Urban Threads.  As my husband and I both love to bike I thought this would be a fun design for our basement which has black leather couch and chairs.  I pressed the seams open and top-stitched to keep everything nice and flat on the front.

Zipper opening

Zipper used

     Instead of a traditional zipper opening on the back, I chose to do an exposed zipper.  I had a two slide zipper in my stash.  I marked a diagonal opening on the back and then cut the opening using a wave rotary cutter.  

Tape used for zipper

Zipper with tape

     To sew the zipper into the opening I used Jewel's Tape to hold it in place as I could not use pins.  I made sure to place the tape well away from the stitch line.

Back of the pillow

     I would like to add some tassels to the zipper pulls for a little more interest to the pillow back.  The covered cord was made from the sweater.