Leather Pillow Project

A few months ago Mallory came to visit Elsie and I and work on a few projects. We had a lot of fun, and one of the things Mallory and Elsie created were these awesome leather pillows! I love the design and materials they used. I'm so excited to move them to my couch later this week (I'm having some painting done in my living room at the moment, so I'm trying to keep pretty items out of harms way). Mallory agreed to share their process of making the pillows:These pillows look really impressive, but they aren’t very hard to make. We used real leather that was left over from other projects, but faux leather will work just as well as long as the backing doesn’t unravel. Since these are for Emma’s living room Elsie was thinking we should make them southwestern themed. I searched online for southwestern patterns and kilim rugs, which have similar patterns, for inspiration. I then drew out four geometric designs based on my findings. Elsie and I decided one of my sketches would be too hard so I redid that one.1. To start these, I used brown kraft paper and a clear ruler to draw the patterns I wanted to sew onto the pillow fronts to scale. Then I carefully cut out the pieces from the paper to use as templates. Keep in mind, you need seam allowance on the big front pieces to sew them to the back eventually.
2. I cut two 12” square pieces of leather and two 16” square pieces of leather to make the pillow fronts. For the backs I cut the same size squares out of thick cotton. I cut the front pieces out of contrasting leather to topstitch on. You can cut leather with a rotary cutter, nice scissors, or an X-acto knife.3. Once all of the pieces were cut out, I used leather glue to glue the pieces down to the pillow fronts.  Rubber cement also works great if you don’t have leather glue.

4. To topstitch the leather down, I used a leather needle and adjusted the tension of my machine with scrap pieces before sewing the project. If your leather sticks to the machine use freezer/wax/parchment paper between the machine and leather. Normally I would use a Teflon foot instead of freezer paper, but I couldn’t find one for Elsie’s machine at the fabric store. I sewed close to the edge all the way around each piece on the front.5. Once all of the pieces are sewn down I sewed the pillow fronts to the backs with the good sides facing each other, leaving a gap of a few inches on one side. I trimmed the corners off, cutting close to the stitch line without getting it.

6. Turn the pillows right side out, stuff it, and sew it closed by topstitching really close. Hand stitching wouldn’t work very well with leather, unless you have practice with it. That’s how to have beautiful, expensive looking pillows.

Here are the finished designs:Thanks so much, Mallory!

Comments

[LARY@ Inspiration Nook]

These are great!

[Keri-Anne]

These are completely wonderful. I just love them. Thank you for sharing

Keri-Anne
http://gingerlillytea.blogspot.com

[Marilyn]

Beautiful! Where do you purchase your leather?

[Juliette Laura]

So obsessed! I will have to be doing this!

xoxo
Juliette Laura
juliettelaura.blogspot.com

[Talia Christine]

Man, these are fantastic! A few shapes and a few lines of sewing equals a pretty stunning result. Really impressed. And INSPIRED!

♥ Talia Christine
http://taliachristine.blogspot.com

[Zilah]

Loved the brown one :)

[Naomi A]

I love the finished product!

The Occasional Indulgence

[Kate]

These look so lovely and tribal!

Kate Xx

[Emma]

Marilyn- We have a local leather store we shop at. :)

[allison]

Ooooh! These are so beautiful and perfect! This might be a little advanced for a novice sewer like me, but I'm thinking about trying it! Thanks for the tutorial.
Allison
http://www.alliray.com/

[Tarah]

They ARE beautiful indeed!

[Carlee]

These look wonderful!! I love them!
Carlee
http://almostendearing.blogspot.com/

[Marisa]

These are so beautiful!
I truly loved them!

[The Charley Girl]

Really cool project! I love Mallory's blog! xo

http:www.thecharleygirl.com

[Raquel]

So cool!! I like this project :)

http://doitnaturalnow.blogspot.com.es/

[Rachel]

I recently made a pillow with suede. Leather is so multifunctional, its great!

[Vicki]

I love those! Great designs.

[ellen]

What awesome pillows- great DIY, thanks for helping me get my craft on :)

[Carrie]

Love these pillows! They're so unique and I've never seen anything like them before!

Carrie
http://lego-house.blogspot.com

[Stephanie]

I'm also interested in where you purchase your leather. Any online recommendations?