Sunday, April 14, 2013

Ta Dah! The Big Reveal... Happy Summertime Butterfly Garden Bed Pillow


I finished my Happy Springtime Butterfly Garden pillow!  Ta Dah!!!!  I had absolutely no idea what I was going to make when I started.  I only knew that it was going to be cream colored and have flowers on it to break up the design with all the starbursts on the other pillow covers and the blanket I made for my bed.  I ordered a few books with flowers in them to crochet but they did not arrive in time and I got impatient.  That is when I was inspired by the flower wall hanging on Attic 24 but without all the doodads to make it hang and for it to be a wall decoration.  You can view the pattern here.   The two flowers on the left I used the chain 41 for the stem like Lucy wrote in her pattern.  The taller one on the middle right was a chain 51 and the one on the far right I chained on 31 for the stem.  This way I would have various heights.   It was a fun project and a great way to use up scraps.  For the base of the pillow I measured the pillow seam to seam and once I knew the width, I then did the following to add texture and thickness so the weight of whatever I would sew on would not droop.  I alternated a single crochet with a double crochet (every other stitch) all the way across.  Then when I turned, where there was a single crochet on the previous row, I made a double crochet, and the next stitch where there was a double crochet on the row below, I made a single crochet.  It is the crochet version of knit 1 pearl 1, but in this case it is crochet single, crochet double, repeat repeat repeat.  


Once the pillow front was the same size as the pillow I was making it for, I just double crocheted and continued on until I was just 1/2 from the middle measurement (in this case 9 inches) and then I single crocheted for about another inch and a half.  It is important to make several rows of single crochet to give it support for the buttons when they go on..  Then on the other end I did the same thing so that the single crochet lined up, and it was about 6 rows, so for the button holes I would chain 3 and skip those 3 stitches and crochet in the next stitch to make the button hole.  Then I just made 3 more rows of single crochet.  You will have to measure to find where the middle and half of each middle for your button placement.  I then scalloped by 7 double crochets in a space, skip 2 spaces, slip stitch, skip 2 and then repeat the 7 double crochets again till you get to the end.  I had to make a half scallop by just making 4 double crochet stitches in the 2nd to the last stitch and then a double crochet in the end stitch to square it off.  


I made simple little butterflies that are in the book Crochet Garden by Suzann Thompson.  (It came yesterday and I got busy making those for the pillow, and I can't wait to review the books!  So cute!).  Her book is available on amazon.com

I fastened buttons on the upper wings.  I thought about doing all the wings but it was just too busy doing it that way and the butterfly lost detail. So only 2 buttons.  I also put big buttons in the center of each big flower.


I had a package of little bee buttons and thought they would go perfectly with this project.  There were 7 in the package of various colors.  I placed them all around the pillow at random to give it just that little extra detail.


When I stitched all the flowers and buttons and butterflies on with invisible nylon thread, I did it before sewing the side seams of the blanket.  This made it a lot easier to sew because I did not have to worry about sewing the two sides together in an accident.  Also, I could monkey about with it while it was laying flat this way.  It really helped with placement.  Once I completed all those steps, I was able to pin it together, right sides facing and lining up the back area so the single crochet areas lined up.  Then I whip stitched it together and then sewed the buttons on the back.   Viola!  Then I had a finished happy pillow :)  


Let's take one more look at the pillow on my bed shall we? Isn't it just adorable and happy?  Dear reader, I hope this inspires you to go out and get creative and have fun as that is my entire mission with doing this blog.  Please let me know what you think in the comments section.  I seldom ever hear feedback here on this blog that I don't know if I am the only one enjoying these projects with sharing them with you.  Feedback inspires me to create more and post more ideas and fun projects.  Without it, I feel like I am just blogging to myself and it takes a lot time and energy to create blog posts.  So please let me know!

Hope you are all having a wonderful day today and I hope you enjoyed this pillow.  

Until next time......xxxxxxxxxxxx






2 comments:

  1. I saw your pillow on The Crochet Crowd Facebook group and Googled the pattern, this blog came up... Hopefully this is the same person, haha! Just wanted to say looking at your pillow made me happy and excited for Spring! It's absolutely gorgeous!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you and yes it is me :) There is no set "pattern" for the completed project but I did highlight how I made it in this blog post. Thank you so much for your kind words. It was a lot of fun to make. The most tedious part was the sewing of the motifs onto the pillow itself. But, I would say worth every moment. I am currently enjoying the new pillow right now :) Thanks again! :)

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