“I love opening my great grandmother’s cedar-lined hope chest and examining the delicately embroidered baby clothes. Because I love the embroidery and I have neither the time nor the patience to recreate it by hand, I like digitizing similar designs using my MBX software.
I wanted to recreate what the September 1916 Needlecraft magazine calls a “boudoir pillow”. It looks very much like the pram pillow embroidered by my grandmother in 1916 for my uncle.
My version is a bit sturdier and is embroidered on a heavier weight cotton. By using a wing needle in the machine embroidery process, I was able to emulate my grandmother’s hemstitching.
My pillow was embroidered on the Janome Horizon Memory Craft 15000 using the grand hoop.” – Janome Artisan Milinda Stephenson
Janome Supplies Required
- Janome Horizon Memory Craft 15000, 14000 or 12000
- Two pieces of cotton fabric – 20″ x 15″ for the pillow’s front and back (pillow front piece needs to be starched and pressed).
- One machine embroidery needle
- One wing needle
- Embroidery thread
- Wash away stabilizer
Instructions
Click here to download the .JEF file.
Step 1:
- Hoop starch and press the 20″ x 15″ cotton along with stabilizer.
- Using a regular machine embroidery needle, sew color 1 – white embroidery.
Step 2:
- Change to the wing needle and sew color 2 – hem stitched outline.
Step 3:
- Lay the second 20″ x 15″ over the hoop and stitch color 3 – sew down stitch for the pillow back.
- Remove it from the hoop. Turn right side out and remove the stabilizer.
Finishing:
- You may simply stuff the pillow with fiberfill and hand sew the opening closed.
- You may also add a ruffle: Prior to step 3 and sewing color 3, create a ruffle on your sewing machine or serger and tape around the outer edges of the hemstitching with the outside of the ruffle facing in.
