Heirloom Diamond Tucked Pillow

Well as promised here is the first of a few pillow tutorials for pillows that I made for the Gift Fair this past weekend. The pillow we're making today is a nod back to when dresses had smocking and intricate pintucked patterns. So without further ado, lets get started!


What you'll need:
17" x 28-1/4" piece of lightweight fabric (cotton, linen, linen blends, lightweight denim, etc)
17" x 17" piece of fabric (can be the same as the front or different)
6" x 24" clear ruler
16" pillow form or stuffing

What we're going to do:
On the larger rectangle of fabric, measure 1-1/4" from the edge and make a line the entire length of fabric (should be 17"). Measure a 1/2" from this line and make another line. Repeat the last step until you are 1-1/4" from the opposite edge. There should be 25 lines. Make sure your fabric does not shift {as mine did} and you end up with crooked lines. Make sure these lines are straight. You will notice that my fabric is longer than 28-1/4" long and that's because I gave myself more fabric allowance while I figured out how long I needed it to actually be. :)

After you have your lines drawn, fold the fabric on the first line, closest to one edge. Double check that it is 1-1/4" from the edge and pin. This will be our first tuck. Press and then sew a 1/4" from the fold.

Fold the fabric on the next line you made, making sure to not catch in any of the fabric you just sewed. Press and then sew another line 1/4" from that folded edge. Repeat this step until all your lines have been sewn. I pressed all of the pleats to one side for easier manipulation.

Press your entire piece making sure to stretch the fabric as you're ironing it so that nothing bunches. Iron all of the pleats in one direction. The rectangle should look like this now.

Now this step is up to you on how you want to proceed, but we're going to be manipulating each of these pleats in opposite directions with each pass. I started off using pins to hold the pleats down, but then realized it was easier to finger-pin them down as the presser foot approached the pleat.

What we're going to do is turn your fabric 90 degrees so that your presser foot will be running perpendicular to all of the pleats and we're going to start about an 1" away from the edge. I say about an inch because I just lined up the edge of my fabric with where the presser plate meets the body of my sewing machine and used that as my guide for each line. In the picture below you can see the pattern we're going to be making. Each pleat is folded in towards its neighbor. You're going to sew a line down the entire length of fabric with your pleats looking like this.

This would be why I abandoned the pinning idea. Not to mention that I kept stabbing myself. 

For the next pass on the pleats you will want to fold all of your pleats in the opposite direction so that they meet up with the opposite neighbor. For the next pass you will sew the pleats down as you did with the first pass. Keep alternating tucks as you progress down the pillow. You should end up with a design as shown below. 

So here is your completed face. Very pretty, no? I love it, too bad I have no little girl to foist this upon. Just finish the pillow as normal.

I finished mine with a back in the same material with an invisible zipper so that it closes nicely.

I am in love with the tucks. :) This little pretty is in my shop right now looking for a good home. :)

I hope you guys have enjoyed this tutorial, and will go make one of your own. Have a great day and enjoy yourselves!