Clam Shell Pillow Cover

The final project for week one of the Curves class was a pillow cover. Cutting and sewing 27 clam shells together, and then onto the pillow case was interesting. I looked through my bag of small squares and picked out some brown and blue ones, and found a piece of brown fabric for the pillow cover. Brown and blue. One of my favorite color combinations, especially with a rich, vibrant blue.

all my little clam shells

Cutting the clam shells was the first step, and I can't say I did a great job, just that they all got cut. And I nicked my finger as well. (thanks, Dad, I have to bleed on my projects just like you always did...) This is an applique project, but it surprised me that we would sew actually the clam shells to each other before attaching them to the pillow cover. The firs ones were more difficult than the later ones, as once you built the foundation, it really helped with the placement of the new shells.

clam shell constructed, ready to iron

I'm sure it helped this project that these shells are raw edge piecing. Otherwise it would probably have been too fiddley for me to finish. As it was, it was still kind of fiddley for me. Having said that, let me ALSO say that I really wanted to do some zigzag or satin stitches on the edges of these shells and I totally talked myself out of that. This time.

pillow cover, finished but not stuffed

Doing the smaller curves was really good practice, and I really like how my pillow cover turned out. I even got the complement from someone who liked my choice of colors. I thought that was really nice, since I feel like that is sort of a weak spot for me. I totally look at stuff other people make and wish I could put color and pattern together like they do!