Playing with Stripes

I've been playing with stripes today.

You may remember the last time I played with stripes.  I had stumbled upon a bargain one day when Bridgette, the granddaughters, and I were out junking.  I saw some red and ivory striped fabric and crafted a pillow cover which played with the stripes.

It was perfect for my project and I learned a lot about creating with the wide striped fabric.

That same day, I found some green and ivory striped linen.  At the time I had no idea what I would do with it but I bought a couple of yards for $10.

Today I cut the fabric into triangles with the stripes going across the Isosceles triangles.

I stitched two of the trianges together, matching up the stripes.  Then, I pressed the seam to one side.

At this point, I had a larger Isosceles triangle with the stripes mitering to form a ninety-degree angle.  (Who ever said all that math would never come in handy?)

I did the same thing with another couple of the triangles.  Then, I joined the two large Isosceles triangles together to make the top of my pillow.

Next, I cut a couple of strips to form the back of my pillow.  These two strips were the same width as my pillow and about 2/3 the length.  I turned one edge under a half-inch a couple of times and stitched the fold to form a hem.  Then, I overlaped the two hemmed edges in the center and lined up the cut edges to the edge of my pillow top.  I stitched the two strips to the pillow top with right sides together.  Then, I turned it right side out and pressed the edges and I had an envelope pillow cover.

Voila!

This time, the stripes formed squares!  What fun it was to see the design take shape.  I've seen these covers offered for sale in catalogues and online like this one for $38:

via

Wow!  My little bargain remnants seem like a real deal when I consider that I also found this one online for $106

via

I also put together a couple of other pillows. this afternoon.  You can see them flanking the striped pillow here on the couch.  I will share more about them in another post.

One of the good things that came of my making this pillow with the mitered stripes forming a square is that there were also four other Isosceles triangles.

You can see the left-over triangles there on the right.  On these triangles, the stripes run up and down.

So, when I stitched them together, they formed a cross very much like the red pillow I made earilier this summer.

I topstitched the cross seams on this one to give it a bit of stability.  The center of it stretched a wee bit because it is on the bias, I guess.  Now, I've got to either buy me another Euro pillow form or make one for this pillow.

I'm pleased with my bargain striped fabric that I got when we were out junking!  Two pillows out of my $10 fabric - and a bonus!  I have a bit of it left over.

Maybe I should give some other designs a try.  Like this one:

via

I also like this one that is black stripe and navy stripe:

via

This one is a bit different, too:

via

It has been fun playing with these stripes.  It kind of makes me wish I had bought more of that green striped bargain fabric.