West Elm Origami Inspired Pillow (No Sew)

              

I was scanning the West Elm site last night and saw their Origami Pillow.

I thought, I can make that!  I had just purchased some felt material by the yard at JoAnn's Fabric at the sale price of 2.99 a yard and decided to try it out.


 Tutorial:

1. I used a yard of fabric (I didn't actually use the whole yard but I used a great deal of it.) 
2. A hot glue gun with glue sticks.
3. Whatever you are going to use for your pillow form. I used an ugly old pillow I had laying around.
4. Some of that heat and press no sew adhesive stuff.
5. This cost about 3 dollars and change because the only thing I had to purchase was the felt and it was on sale!
 

 

I started out measuring around my pillow form to see how big to make the cover. I left an extra 2 inches or so around each side.  Cut out the fabric. I then proceeded to figure out where to lay the no sew adhesive by using my level/laser. You can't see it (in the pic to the side) but it shoots out a nifty little laser.  For some odd reason my mother kept entering and exiting the room while snickering.

 I kept trying to figure out what the heck she was snickering about.  Finally, after being laughed at several times, she proceeds to tell me people in the sewing world use these cutting mats that have all of these little measuring things so you can decide where to cut your fabric at etc.....  It apparently makes it easier. Who knew?

Here's that cutting mat thingy!

This straight edge allowed me to measure precisely from the edge of the fabric in to where I wanted my seams and line up the heat n bond (which is the strip of white you see) so that my pillow is not wa.ber. jawled- adj. Being crooked or off center.  You probably won't find that word in a dictionary. It's apparently only published in the, " Dictionary According to My Mom."

To figure out where exactly I wanted my heat-n-bond stuff I  used this tool (pictured above, I think it's called a straight edge) and lined it up. You don't need any of the tools I used. In fact you probably already know how to do this, but I'm not a sewing person so this is all new to me.

Anyhow, line it all up and add the heat n bond to where you want your pillow seams to be at. Make sure you leave one end open to insert your pillow.  Flip your felt over and iron it all together. It doesn't matter what side it's on cause felt looks the same front and back.

The ironing  may take a little longer due to the fabric being thicker. I used the wool setting for the felt and it ironed just fine. I know i was worried some people were afraid the felt might singe.

After the adhesive is sticking adequately,  turn the pillow right side out. Flip the ends of the side you left open in on themselves, gluing them with the hot glue gun. 

Folding the open end of my pillow in on itself and gluing with hot glue gun.

Now you have your pillow and the fun part begins! Wooohooo!  So my pillow ended up being a little over 15 inches long. I cut out 3" by 3" squares and 6 of them fit across one row.  Take your square and fold it diagonally,  iron it down the middle to make a permanent crease. Open your square and fold one corner from opposite sides, meeting in the middle, and hot glue them in place. Now, starting from one corner, begin placing your origami folds. Work from one side of the pillow, in rows, til you reach the other side. Glue in place.  Here are some pics to give you an idea: