Thursday, May 14, 2015

OILCLOTH PILLOW COVERS

I am particularly fond of oil cloth. Something about it resonates with me, I find it nostalgic.  It is also easy and fun to work with.  Back in the day it was a lot more prevalent then it is today. It was often used to line open shelving and before the advent of contact paper used as shelf paper.  If a redwood table was worn out it might be covered with oil cloth as well as the benches. It was a time of reuse and keep not replace - my parents and my friends parents had all lived through the great depression and being wasteful was highly frowned upon.
I found an online vendor that has a very wide selection of oilcloth at reasonable prices and reasonable shipping - they have lots of other fabric too.  I chose these two to make pillow covers for the 16" square pillows I use on the bench on our porch.
I liked the idea of one fabric on the front and the other on the back and to tie it all together I cut out some of the cherries with the intent of gluing them on the front of the pillow on the polka dot fabric.
These pillow envelope covers are so simple - my pillows are 16" so I cut out (for each pillow) one polka dot piece 17x17 and then 1 of the cherry fabric 17x22 and cut that piece in half.  The additional fabric makes the overlap for the pillow.  On the cherry fabric turn over the fabric and stitch a 1/4" seam. Because the oilcloth is very slick you will want to hold the fabric behind the machine to help feed it so that you get an even stitch.
Right sides together, pin them and sew all around...

Then clip the four corners....
Turn the pillow right-side out and using a bone folder, carefully push the corners to make them smooth.

Insert your pillows and here they are front and back.
Using a little double sided tape attach your cherry "appliques" to make sure you like the placement before gluing them onto the pillow.
Once you are pleased with the placement, using a quick dry glue, attach the cherries to the pillow - this is my favorite glue.

Here they are - a very quick project, ready for the bench.
I have a couple of books in my craft book library with some very interesting oilcloth projects - will add a link below.


 Resource

Oilcloth Fabric, Online Fabric Store, Link 
Sewing with Oilcloth, Kelly McCants,Sewing with Oilcloth
Oilcloth Inspirations, Sophie Bester,Oil Cloth Inspirations
 


Thank you for stopping by.

2 comments:

  1. WOW!!!! THIS IS MOST INTERESTING! DIDN'T KNOW THIS WAS EVER DONE. YOU NEVER CEASE TO AMAZE ME WITH YOUR VAST KNOWLEDGE AND HOW TO DO THINGS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR MANY POSTS!

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  2. Thank you for your kind words Anonymous - another friend mentioned that oilcloth was a staple when camping - I should have mentioned that as I remember using it there as well as at our cabin in Mammoth. Memories.....thank you for stopping by. j.

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