Amazing! I love, love, love how innovative this is. Great imagination and great job! What talent!

Well done pillow and love the colors you chose to go in the room!

Oh, yay! Thank you!

Wow! This looks so amazing and professional! I do not see the mistakes you spoke of like the "twisting." Alright, I'm a newbie, and I have a question: what is "weft" interlining? And kudos for working with a fabric that has to be matched by the pattern. That combined with such heavy fabric (I'm too chicken for that), thick layers (also too chicken), and complicated additions (I'm scared of welt pockets) makes it all the more impressive!

Very pretty!  You did a really nice job!

Why thank you!

BEAUtiful! I do agree that the white and black areas being larger would add a great touch, but as is, it's absolutely outstanding. I am always so impressed with your craftsmanship!

Great work! These look so lovely!

First of all, I have no idea why I never thought about putting in an invisible zipper in a pillow cover...a "duh" moment!

Second, your color and fabric choices are fabulous!  Corduroy is a tough fabric to get straight stitches because of the ribs...

I am so glad that you do not get discouraged and forge forward with your sewing!

Oh, and third, shhhh...no telling anyone except us about any wonkiness!

Thank you! The brown corduroy ended up being a last-minute add-in from my scrap pile. I was so danged excited about making these, I didn't get enough material at the store, so that was my fix. Hooray for resourcefulness!

Pretty pillow! (And I don't even see the wonkiness you are talking about...)

Great fabric choices! And the décor of that room is pretty awesome, too.

Thank you so much! And if a fellow crafty person can't see the wonkiness, then I can probably rest assured nobody else will. Yay!

Original post December 31st:

First of all...

Invisible zippers: 2
Becca: 0

Why, oh why, invisible zippers, do you cause me such anguish? Seriously, does anyone know how to do these? I can get the meat of them very nice-looking, but the zipper pull end and especially the zipper stop end give me such a pain. I end up having to hand-stitch a few inches of it, and it always looks at least a bit wonky. Tips anyone?

This project is the Zip-O-Riffic pillow out of the book S. E. W. by Diana Rupp. I was so glad for her well-written, inspiring tutorial. This book also has an incredible amount of information in it about materials and basic sewing in general (I'm new!) that is helpful and informative.

At any rate, I'm still proud of how this turned out. I have been shopping for more decorative pillows for quite awhile, but I refuse to pay $30+ for a friggin' pillow. Why not make it myself??

Oh, and the red band is actually the same thickness as the brown one, but it looks wider in the middle because of its stretch (didn't expect that). It's sort of a mini-corduroy material that looks suede-ish.

So when I get the courage and energy to do the other pillow, that'll get done...

Without further ado...

Back shot showing the niceness of most of the zipper in back:



Close-up of the zipper stop wonkiness that I hope nobody will notice:



Action shot (the color coordination looks better in person, I promise):



Thanks for looking!


Update January 2nd:

I finished pillow number two, and I'm happy with how my new additions look in the living room. I also figured out how to insert a lovely-looking invisible zipper...I'm thinking of doing a tutorial on it. Look how nicely this one turned out:

How very lovely! You did an amazing job.