Drop cloth pleated triangle pillow

This is Pillow number 6, and the last one for now, of the SYTYC thrift store challenge. This is the only one that I used fabric for that wasn’t from a thrift store. It pillow form was, and the fabric wasn’t new. In fact this is the drop cloth from when I painted the boys room (still yet to be revealed) and spilled an entire gallon of BLUE paint in the middle. I was just going to throw it away, so not even good enough for a thrift store, so I hope you are all okay with it!

For this one I wanted to play with the fun triangle shape a bit. At first I considered tons of really small ruffles (a different fabric of course) but when I tripped over my drop cloth it spoke to me. And so I decided to go with pleats!

This pillow actually had a removable cover, unlike the other ones I’ve been using. So I took it off, who knows, I might find a use for a small bit of purple corduroy. The form inside is what I wanted.

I started by folding and ironing my fabric. I didn’t precut it, because I wasn’t sure how much fabric I’d need, so I just kept on folding and ironing. I decided to go with a more random placement, rather than keeping it even. So I just kind of did it whenever it felt right.

THEN, using a thick needle and canvas thread I sewed from one end of the fabric to another! I used this handy magnetic thing (any REAL sewers out their know the name) to keep my fabric in place as I sewed. I just kept going until it was long enough to cover the pillow.

Then, folding it in half and placing the right sides together I sewed down the side, matching up the pleats. Here you can see how close and how far some of the pleats are. Now you should have a tub!

Then opening up the tube and centering the seam I sewed across the top. Turn it inside out and shove the pillow down inside!

now folding the rough edges inside sew the top closed! For me I got lucky, and one of my pleats ended up being right at the top, so I just sewed along the pleat line to close it up! (don’t look too closely, you might see that my lines go a bit crooked in places. Oops!)

And finished! Oh… before I sewed it up I ironed the pleats both ways to get a nice strong fold in either direction. When I sewed along the seam I folded them all in the same direction, but when playing with the pillow they fold either way. It’s actually a really fun pillow! One of the kid’s favorites!

Don’t forget to check out the tutorials for the other pillows