Accent Pillow

Last year, when I was redecorating my bedroom, I saw a picture of an accent pillow in a pattern book. Of course, instead of even considering purchasing the pattern, I said to myself, "I can do that!" I took a picture of it, and gave it a whirl.
Since this is the WAYWARD girls' craft blog, I'll bet you think it didn't turn out. But guess what! It did. Of course I learned a few things that I would do differently should I ever make one again, but all in all, I think it turned out well.

You need a square pillow or pillow form or poly-fill, enough fabric to cover the pillow, contrasting fabric, cording to go around the edges plus create the tie, and tassels. You will need to measure your pillow to figure out your exact yardages.

Start by cutting a front and a back to fit the pillow. Be sure to leave a seam allowance. Sew on the cording to one side. (If you have never sewn piping on a pillow, check here.  (You can use the overlapping method they show, or you can just sew in the finished product as I did.)

Measure the edge of your top pillow fabric. They should all be the same. Subtract 3 inches from the length, and then multiply by 2.

For example, if the length of the edge was 16 inches, subtract 3 to get 13, then multiply by 2 to get 26 inches.
You should cut a rectangle that is 26" x 16" from the contrast fabric.

Double this fabric. Stitch and turn right side out. Press with the seam in the center of the back of the square.
Loosely gather the both raw edges of the fabric of the contrast piece. Center it on the front of the pillow fabric. Baste in place.

Then, place both pillow top and bottom right sides together and sew around the edges, leaving enough open room to fit in your pillow. Don't leave the edges with the contrasting fabric open. You will need to be careful with the cording. Turn right side out. Put your pillow inside (or stuff it with poly-fill), then handstitch closed.

The cording I got was attached to webbing so that it could been sewn in. I used it with the webbing for outlining the pillow, but then carefully snipped the webbing off to create the tie. By using a combination of a little craft glue and some careful sewing, I attached the tassels to the ends of the cording. I wrapped thead around the place where the cording joings the tassel as you can see below.
Loop the cording around the contrast fabric and voila! Done!