Finish It Up Friday

Continuing on my Fall sewing kick-

Meet my newest pillow!  This little guy was started two or three years ago as part of a Fall themed applique quilt I was going to make.  I believe he was copied from clip art in an old Facebook game, (fluff)Friends.  I never did make the quilt (obviously).  One of the other blocks, a trio of pumpkins, I made into a pillow last year.  I started doing the same with this block then too, but there was a whole heck of a lot of blanket stitching to secure all those parts onto the scarecrow and I got bored last year and stopped.  I found the block again a few days ago and decided this was the year to finally finish it up.  Once I had the scarecrow (which of course took no time at all) done I grabbed some scraps for the border. 

 

The backing is a fabric I picked up at Joanns on sale last winter.  I intended for it to be the backing of my pumpkin quilt, but it turns out I had already bought (better) fabric to back that quilt- but the colors were perfect for this little scarecrow.  I love when that works out.

 

 



Typically when I make a pillow I do an envelope back, but I never really like it.  I think I do something wrong because the fit is always too tight and the envelope part bulges and I always worry the fabric is going to giveway.  In this case, I made a pillow that was not a standard size so an envelope back was not an option anyway because there was no pillow form that would fit in it.  Invisible zipper to the rescue.  This was my first time sewing one.  It came out ok, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get the end with the stopper to be invisible.  I couldn't get the teeth of the zipper to flatten down enough by the stopper for me to sew it well.  I used a this tutorial from Craftiness Is Not Optional.  Does anyone have any tips for invisible zippers or know of any other good tutorials?

Fun Fact: the stuffing for this pillow was taken out of airline travel pillows.  When my husband was traveling a lot for work he would often get upgraded to first class and I quickly informed him that the pillows he was given needed to find their way home to go.  Free pillow forms/stuffing, yes please!  I now have a cabinet full of airline pillows- it got to the point where I had to tell him to stop bringing them home.

Linking up with CrazyMomQuilts for Finish It Up Friday and Fabric Tuesday at QuiltStory.