Art Gallery Fabric Poetica Heart Pillows

Create perfect harmony in your living space with these feminine cushions. Made using printed cottons in serene greens, blues, pinks and purples, Corinne has created two coordinated styles; a 3-D pillow with a pretty pleated frill, plus a coordinating cushion with padded appliqué.

Essentials

Fabric: Art Gallery Fabrics, Poetica range, Sweet
Melody Aqua; Spirited Verse Azure, fat quarter
of each; Love Notes Mint;
Rhythmic Lilac; cotton,
white, 50cm of each
Fibre filling
Cushion pad, 40cm square

Dimensions List

Heart cushion: 40cm x 47cm
Square cushion: 42cm square

Sew a heartshaped cushion

Visit www.sewmag.co.uk and print the large heart template. Pin it to two floral fat quarters and cut out with a 5mm seam allowance. Measure the perimeter of the heart shape.
Cut six 6cm wide strips from striped fabric ensuring you cut across the pattern. Sew the pieces end to end to make one continuous length approximately 3m long. Fold in half lengthways, right side out, and press.
Stitch along the raw edge through both layers with a long, straight stitch. Do not fasten the ends of the threads, instead pull the top thread to gather up the folded fabric into a ruffle. Alternatively, sew running stitch by hand and gather up to the measurement of the heart perimeter, plus 5cm.
Fold in the ends of the gathered strip and slip stitch. Tack the ruffle to the edges of one heart, right side up, starting at the top indentation and easing it around the curves. Overlap the ends of the ruffle.
Cut enough 6cm strips of lilac fabric to measure the perimeter of the heart when sewn end to end. Pin this gusset strip face down over the ruffle, leaving a 1cm seam allowance on the end and starting from the bottom point of the heart. Once pinned in place, trim the other end of the gusset to a 1cm seam allowance.
Stitch the gusset and ruffle in place. Remove the tacking threads. Place the two 1cm seam allowances of the gusset right sides together and sew down to join. Pin and tack the second heart to the gusset. Sew around the perimeter leaving a 10cm gap on one straight edge for turning.
Clip all curves and corners before turning out. Fluff up fibre filling well and stuff into the cushion a little at a time to prevent lumps forming. Use sufficient stuffing to give the cushion a smooth, rounded finish. Fold in the raw edges of the gap and slip stitch closed.

Make an applique pillow

Visit www.sewmag.co.uk and print the small heart template. Draw around the template nine times onto the reverse of lilac fabric, leaving at least a 1cm border around each one. Top and tail them if necessary to avoid waste.
Pin the lilac fabric face down onto plain white cotton and stitch around all the hearts leaving no gap in the outline.
Cut out the double layered hearts, clip all curves and corners before snipping a 4cm wide slit in the centre of the white layer only. Turn the hearts out through this gap and press. Stuff each heart very lightly with fibre filling to give it a little puff.
Cut a 45cm square of floral fabric and crease to find the centre. Pin one heart to the middle, lilac side up. Pin the remaining hearts around this leaving at least a 4cm border at the edges. Oversew the hearts to the square of fabric with small stitches.
From the remaining white fabric, cut two 30cm x 45cm rectangles. Hem one long edge on each piece before pinning to the cushion front, right sides together with the hemmed edges overlapping.
Stitch around the whole cushion and turn out through the overlap. Press and topstitch 5mm in from the edges. Insert a cushion pad through the gap.