Tie Pillow Tutorial

Oble's Tie Pillows (2006)

I've been asked several times how I made these memory pillows,

so it is high time I put together this tutorial.

* * *

A co-worker's father passed away in early 2006 and the 

children/grandchildren wanted to preserve his ties.

The woman for whom I made these purchased the pillow forms.  

I do not remember if they were 12" or 14" ~ 

but the method is the same no matter the size of the insertable pillow form.

* * *

The first step is to purchase pillow forms so you have a size to work with.

For the pillows above, I cut muslin foundation squares large enough 

to cover the top with 1/2" seam allowances added on all four sides.

I did not take the ties apart nor did I launder them.

(at the request of the family)

The ties were cut into lengths long enough to cover the muslin squares.  

The remaining shorter pieces were saved,

including the pointy ends.

I laid two tie segments on top of the muslin, side by side.

Using the 'fancy' stitches on my Bernina at their widest settings,
and stitching along the line formed by the two ties' edges,

the resulting 'seam' formed a join between the two adjacent ties 

and secured them to the foundation fabric.

I worked my way across the foundation fabric, one join at a time.
(If there were any raw edges involved, 
I made sure the next piece had a finished edge
and layered it over the raw edge before stitching.)

I've put photos of the finished pillow tops in a Picasa photo album 

so that you can see how the layouts varied from one pillow to another.  

* * *

Once the foundation squares had been covered, 

they were squared up and ready to be made into insertable covers.

* * *

In 2009, I shared a tutorial on making pillow shams here.  

You can add coordinating or contrasting flange borders to the tie pieces or not, 

depending on how you want to use/display them.  

Otherwise, the tutorial for making the back and binding 

follow the same process.

For those who want to incorporate other clothing into their memory pillows,
the back panels and/or binding could be pieced together
from taken apart shirts or pants ("made" fabric).

* * * 

Click here to see photos of what others have done with ties.

(Some people take the ties apart ~ others do not.

Some stitch with the silk alone.

Others prepare the ties with fusible tricot interfacing before cutting their pieces.)

* * *

At one point, I had grand plans to make a tie quilt ~

but the ties I gathered were given to another quilter

once I realized I was more in love with the idea than the actual process.

To those who are considering tie-related projects,

there's truly a world of possibilities out there!

Quiltdivajulie