How to Make: A Make a 9x9" Pillow- Part 2

The first part of my diy can be found here.

Before I show you how to cut out the backing of your pillow, I wanted to talk about iron safety. I probably should have put this in last week’s post since I told you to iron the squares, but it’s too late now.

Before starting to iron, you should clear off your ironing board, so there is nothing on it, but your iron and what you are ironing. I usually set my iron on one of the middle settings. There is a little chart on mine telling me what to set it at, depending on the fabric I’m ironing.

If your fabric has quite a few wrinkles in it, that won’t easily come out, you can use a spray bottle of water to dampen the fabric a bit.

Be careful to not burn yourself. Do NOT touch the metal part of the iron. To test if it is hot enough, you can spray a little water on the ironing board, and try ironing over it. If it sizzles, the iron is hot enough. Be careful to not iron wrinkles into your fabric, especially if ironing with water. They will be very hard to get out. If you accidently iron a wrinkle in, try to iron it out as soon as possible. When you are done ironing, be sure to turn the iron off, AND unplug it.

Okay, hopefully you now know how to safely use the iron! Back to pillow making: Now that you have your top pieced, you can cut out the backing. Your top should be 9.5”x9.5”, but don’t worry if it’s not. Your pillow will just end up being a little smaller. If your pillow isn’t 9.5”x9.5”, then you’ll need to adjust the size of your backing accordingly. Take the fabric you wish to use for the back of the pillow (I didn’t do this, but you could make a piece just like the front and use that for the back.) and cut out a square the same size as your pillow top.

With the RIGHT sides facing each other, pin them together.

Notice how on my pillow I’ve put two pins sideways. This is because you will need to leave a space unsewn so you can turn the pillow, and stuff it. I’ve left it about 3” wide-the width of a square.

After I sewed it together, I turned it right-side out.

Then grab a few handfuls of stuffing and stuff the pillow.  

You’ll want to stuff the pillow so it’s pretty soft, or else you’ll overstuff the pillow, and the seams will start to come apart.