Geometric pillow tutorial!

So its not the chevron pillow I was originally thinking of here but my music room is begging for a Chevron pillow so I decided on this playful geometric design more suited to the kids playroom instead. 

Want to learn how I created this fun pillow?  Follow this easy tutorial to create your own.  Click on Read More for the full tutorial.

For ease of explanation I will refer to the fabrics as black and white but any color or pattern would work in its place.

You first cut 4" strips of both the black and white fabrics.  You will need two strips of each color the full width of your fabric. 

Now create your triangles. ( I know they are not triangles but it is easier to explain this way.)  The base of each triangle will be 4" long and the top will be 2".  You can see on my cutting mats in the picture how I diagonally cut off nothing at the top and tapered to an inch at the bottom. 

My next cut in the picture on the right will also be the first cut of my next triangle.  Cut all of your 4" strips of both black and white in this manner. 

This will leave you with two nice piles of black and white triangles.

 Pin the triangles right sides together so the 4" bottom of the black triangle will match up to the 2" top of the white triangle as shown in the photo above. Then sew together using a 1/4" seam allowance.

Folded open after sewing it should look like this.

Add another triangle to your row remembering to sew them right sides together and matching top 2" of black to bottom 4" of white.

 Continue adding alternate color triangles until your row has 9 triangles in it.  If you started with black you should end with black.

 Now you are ready to start another row.  Remember you will need to start and end with white triangles for this row so that your rows will alternate black, white, black, white.  You will need six rows in total so that will mean 3 rows starting and ending with black, and 3 rows starting and ending with white.

 This is what it will look like when you have all six rows lined up laying over your pillow form.

Now you are ready to start sewing your rows together. You will fold the white row onto the black row right sides together to pin.

 If you pin your seam allowances where the top row seam allowances fold to the right and the bottom row seam allowances fold to the left this will give you a smoother join without bumps and puckers.

Sew using a 1/4" seam allowance.

 This is what it will look like folded open after sewing.  You are ready to add another black row.  This time remember to fold over your seam allowances in the opposite direction as before.  Your top row with seam allowances folded to the right will now be your bottom row with seam allowances going to the right.  Your new top row will need the seem allowances going to the left.  Continue to sew your rows together until all six rows are attached.

 This is a close up of how my seams match up with no puckering.

Here are all six rows sewn together laying over my pillow form.

Iron those seam allowances flat.

Now you need to cut the two edges so you are left with a square. Just trim off the edge as shown in the photo above.

 Lay your cushion front onto your black fabric and cut out a square the same size for your cushion back.

Here are details on the piping for this pillow.  If you do not wish to use piping you can omit these steps.  If you purchase pre-made piping you can also omit these steps.  If you are making your own piping as I did, follow along.

Cut two strips 1 3/4" the full width of your black fabric.

Right sides together and perpendicular to each other draw a diagonal line across the corner as shown in the photo above.  This is where you will join your two strips for piping the full length of the pillow.

 Sew across the diagonal line.

 Clip the excess material off.

 Here is what it should look like as you open your two strips up.

 Place your cording in the center of your strip on the wrong side and fold so the two sides match up as shown.  The right side of the fabric should be on the outside.

 Move your needle position over so it is closest to your cording and sew the full length of your strips.

 Pin your piping to the right side of the cushion front all the way around.

 Your piping should meet up like this once you have pinned all the way around.

 Trim off the excess cord at the start of your piping and trim off the excess at the end so it overlaps about 1/4".

 Fold the raw edge at the end of your strip in as shown in the picture .

 Fold back over the overlapped cording and pin.

 Using the same needle position sew your piping on to the right side of your cushion front all the way around.

 Pin the cushion back to cushion front right sides together.  Your piping will be in the middle of these two layers.

 Be sure to leave about a 10" opening for stuffing your pillow form into the cushion cover.

Clip off the excess fabric at the corners.

 Turn your cushion cover inside out.

 Push your pillow form inside your cushion cover.  (Yes that is an old green pillow that I inherited from my Grandmother that I am using.)

 Pin the opening closed.

 Hand stitch to close off the opening.

Admire your work!

If you used this tutorial I would love to hear your feedback, and see your creations. 

If you are posting or selling your finished pillow kindly link back to this tutorial.  

Thanks, Marci