This design has a vital, dynamic quality, as the three-dimensional effect plays tricks with the eyes. The wonderful texture and depth of color have been created by folding small circles of bright orange cloth (either felt or felted wool) and packing them very tightly together on the base fabric in order to create a structure that seems alive, and screams out to be stroked !
Materials & tools
- Feather pillow insert, 10 x 18″ (25 x 45cm)
- For the pillow cover: 23 1/2 x 19″ (57 x 47cm) orange felt or felted woven-wool fabric
- For the folded rosettes: 20 x 18″ (50 x 45cm) orange felt or felted woven-wool fabric
- Matching zipper, 18″ (45cm) long — optional
- Matching sewing thread
- Basic sewing kit
- If you wish to make a pillow back with a zipper, cut out three pieces of felt for the pillow cover — one piece measuring 11 x 19″ (27 x 47cm) for the front and two pieces measuring 6 x 19″ (14.5 x 47cm) and 6 1/2 x 19″ (15.5 x 47cm) for the back. If you wish to make a sewn-in pillow back, cut the back panel to the same measurements as the front. To make the rosettes, cut out 60 felt circles with a 3″ (7cm) diameter.
- Pinch each felt circle in the middle, and fold the sides in to form a rosette. Hand-stitch the base of each folded rosette to hold it together.
- Starting at one end of the front pillow panel, hand-stitch the rosettes onto the fabric, stitching neatly and securely through the base of each one.
- Continue adding rosettes, positioning them very close together to form a dense, wide row of rosettes through the center of the pillow panel. Make sure that the row of rosettes is straight and that there is the same amount of undecorated base fabric on either side of the row.
- Make up the pillow back and join the front and back following one of the two options below. Insert the pillow form into the finished cover.
