How to Make a Ribbon Pillow

When using various colors in a room it can sometimes be tough to pull all the colors together. For example, when people make curtains, then use a different fabric for throw covers or upholstery, and yet other colors for the wall paint, it can look like a mess until you find that one rug, or something else, that ties it all together. Make ribbon pillows and you’ll do just that. Ribbon pillows are not much more difficult than making ordinary pillows but the results are very impressive.

With ribbon pillows you simply cut strips of fabric that match the various fabric decor in the room, like fabric from the drapes, sofa, other pillows, as well as fabrics that match the wall paint, and sew them together. The design choice is yours: put a large stripe of one fabric down the center, with smaller stripes to each side, or make every stripe the exact same size. There are many different designs you can do including patchwork or four-corner arrangements where you have a center color with the four corners of the pillow being each a different fabric.

If you’ve purchased the slipcovers, bedding, curtains, and other fabric items in the room, and there is no fabric leftover to use for pillows, look around a fabric store for material in tones that you’ve chosen for the room. All of the fabrics don’t have to be solid so that they’ll match. If one of the fabrics in the room, for instance, is orange with lime green dots, choose an orange fabric and a lime green fabric to use in the pillow, along with shades that match the paint.

After cutting the strips of fabric and sewing them together you’ll begin adding the ribbon to the pillow. Use a double-needle stitch to hold the ribbon in place, along each seam. Ribbon can be wide or narrow as long as it covers each seam well. Instead of ribbon you can also use lace pieces but avoid gathered lace for this project. You can also use strips of fabric which have been folded to show no raw edges.

Make circular pillows by cutting a circular pattern into pie slice-shapes of various colors. The ribbon pillow is then finished like a regular pillow: by adding a solid backing, or making a ribbon pillow backing, then stuffing the pillow.

If you have too many colors in the room, or you’re just having trouble pulling together two or more very different colors, try making the ribbon pillows. There are so many varieties, like solid colored pillows with various colored ribbon, or striped pillows with ribbon arranged like a checkerboard pattern over the whole face of the pillow.

The ribbon pillows are a little more time consuming than making regular pillows but it’ll be worth it when you’re finished. They make great gifts, too, so check out your friends’ and family’s color scheme and get busy for the next holiday or birthday.