I’m a huge fan of mixing black and white geometrics with subtle blush tones in an otherwise light and airy white interior. There’s something that feels so fresh and feminine, yet grounded about the whole combination. I was making a Target run recently, and took a lap through their new home section [which btw is totally styled, curated and straight up awesome] and came across a fantastic black and white Kilim-inspired table runner. Ken and I are not table-runner-people, but I liked it so much, I bought it anyway with this idea of making a long lumbar pillow for our bed. The black and white pattern was the perfect juxtaposition to our blush pillow cases and the fringe at each end of the table runner easily serve as the brush trim on the pillow ends. Here’s the tutorial on how I made the pillow in case you want to make one for your own home. And P.S. the table runner is on SALE at Target right now, so why not?!
Materials:
- Table runner roughly 72″ x 14″. I used this one from Target!
- Sewing Machine fitted with a denim (heavy duty) needle.
- Sewing Pins
- Coordinating thread
- Hand-sewing needle
- Long ruler or measuring tape
- Scissors
- Down feathers from a 26″ x 26″ Ikea pillow insert
1. Cut off the two ends of your table runner (leaving 3/4″ seam allowance) at a location where when the two raw sides come together they look good matching up together. These two pieces will be your pillow face. Set aside remaining table runner fabric until Step 4.
2. Pin the wrong sides of the two pieces forming the pillow face together.
3. Sew the two pieces together to create one long pillow face with fringe edges.
4. Cut out the remaining table runner piece down to the length of your table runner including the fringe. In this case, the runner including the fringe is 33″ long. Thus, the back piece is also cut to 33″ long.
5. Pin the wrong sides of the two pieces together, and use your sewing machine to run a straight stitch down the two long edges.
6. Turn right side out, and iron seams flat.
7. At the open ends, fold under the edge of the back pillow face so that it lines up with the fringe edge of the pillow front, and pin into place.
8. Thread a sewing needle with coordinating thread, and double knot the end. Use a whip stitch to close up the pillow end.
9. Cut open the Ikea down pillow insert, and stuff feathers into lumbar pillow. Err on the side of overstuffing the pillow to give a nice plump end result.
10. Close up open pillow end by repeating Steps 7 & 8.