Lattice Pillow Tutorial

For my master bed, I wanted two smaller pillows with some texture.

They were going to be white, and it reminded me of this scarf I'd seen from VandCo.

But I thought the ruffles might be too frilly for what I wanted, and decided to make the texture on the pillow more subtle and simple.  So rather than ruffles, I used double fold bias tape.  Sewing on the bias tape gave the lattice design, and the 4 layers of the tape gave it some height to add the texture I wanted.

So to make your own.

For these pillow forms, I actually bought a cheap basic standard pillow from Walmart for $2.00 and cut it in half, sewing the cut edge shut.

So to make your pillow cover, you can use this tutorial for the construction of the basic pillow envelope cover.  Basically you add 1" on each side from the dimensions of the pillow for your pillow front.  For the envelope back, cut 2 pieces with the same height as your pillow front, but add enough fabric so they can cross.

For example, these pillows the front was 12.5" x 18" and the 2 envelope backs were 12.5" x 13"

So once you measure your pillow and cut the fabric for the face or front of the pillow, you can mark your lattice lines.

MARK LATTICE LINES

Draw a single line diagonally, with a 45 degree angle.  I chose to start close to one corner on mine. 

{like an idiot I cut my pillow face not paying attention, and didn't have enough fabric to cut a new one, thus the ugly vertical seam on the right side, try to ignore my mistake}

Next draw the other lines parallel {I know the photo says perpendicular but I meant parallel for this and I'm too lazy to change the photo, sorry} to your first line.  I drew my lines 3" apart.  You could put them closer together to have smaller diamonds on your finished pillow. 

Then draw your other set of diagonal lines in the opposite direction, this time perpendicular.  Once again I just drew one anywhere, then spaced the other lines 3" apart. 

MAKE BIAS TAPE

I chose to just make my own bias tape for these pillows.  But you could buy it, or use ribbon, ruffles, rick rack, etc. instead of tape.  Actually, mine isn't true bias tape because I didn't cut it on the bias so I could save fabric.  Because the tape won't be curving, the strips didn't need to be cut on the diagonal.

So you cut your strips, then iron the sides in, then iron the sides on top of each other, folding them inside the tape.  My 2" strips made 1/2" thick bias tape.

SEW ON TAPE 

Start with one direction of lines and sew the bias tape on, top stitching on each side of the tape with 1/8" seam allowance.

Make sure you sew all the lines in one direction first. 

Then add the rest of the lines on top of your first set on the opposite diagonal to make the lattice design. 

CONSTRUCT PILLOW COVER

Now the front of the pillow is finished, you can plop your two hemmed pillow envelope pieces face down on your lattice front so right sides are together.  Then just sew around the edge with 1/2" seam allowance.  

Your pillow cover will be done and you can flip it right side out and jam the pillow in. 

You're finished.  There's lots of ways to make this pillow design more exciting, like using printed background fabric and contrasting lattice lines.  Or making the lattice lines stand out more with ruffles, ribbon, etc.  My version is pretty plain and simple compared to all the ways you could use the idea.  You could also draw your lines closer or farther apart to change the size of your finished diamonds.