Iron Oak Farm: DIY Eyelet Patchwork Pillow

When I was a little girl, my mom decorated my room in pale pink rosebuds and white eyelet. It was VERY girly! Lot's of pink...lemme tell ya! I had pale pink carpet, a pink bedspread trimmed in eyelet, eyelet decorative pillows, and pink rosebud wall paper. Looking back on my room, it was adorable. But as I grew up I couldn't help but feel like my room didn't reflect my personality. I was something of a tomboy (much to my mother's chagrin) and my framed shadow boxes of dead insects didn't quite go with the cottage princess look.

I never really went through a rebellious stage, but around age 13 I asked my parents if I could change my room. They agreed and told me that I could do what I wanted so long as I paid for it myself. Fair enough.

I had some babysitting money saved up so I bought a gallon of green paint, like a celery/sage color, a set of tan and green sheets and a tan, cargo style bedspread with big pockets on the sides. I hung a branch from the ceiling and placed several bird nests I had found over the years, along with an empty paper wasp nest. More dead insects went up on the walls, a shelf with my sea shell collection, shelf mushrooms, various pods, seeds, acorns and pine cones, a squirrel skull I found in the woods...photos and drawings of sea turtles, owls and other wildlife, and shortly after my room re-do I got an aquarium for my birthday and a pet Red-Earred Slider. I was kinda obsessed with turtles at the time.

My room looked like a nature center, but I loved it!

I donated all the pink... thinking I would never again re-visit that style. I knew in my heart that I was a nature lover and when I had my own home it would just give me more space to fill with examples of preserved nature. Maybe I could charge admission and give tours like a museum!

Fast forward 20 years and Ive found that while I still love nature, I don't necessarily have to scream it to the world via home decorating. In fact, I've somehow come full circle and love that ultra feminine cottage, shabby chic look. My mom is so proud!

We have an old farmhouse and we've kept the lower level rather rustic with dark stained wood, various antiques and caramel-color painted walls, but upstairs is a totally different story.

We recently remodeled this spare bedroom (I have a room tour coming soon) and we did it in a French Countryside, cottage theme complete with lots of eyelet accessories. To say the least, I am kicking myself for not keeping all the girly room decorations from my youth...but how are you to know?

Because I couldn't predict the future, I have to find or make new accessories for our spare bedroom, as in the case with this pillow.

It's a white on white, six patch pillow, each patch is 6 by 6 inches.

I treated each patch as its own project.

I started with 6- 6x6 squares of white cotton fabric, then decorated each one with different sewing material.


This square is two strips of large eyelet and two strips of thin eyelet sewn vertically.

This square has a layer of pleating sewn over the straight square. I did a large running stitch with my sewing machine and pulled the end thread to gather.

This is a calico white on white fabric I found.

I did a little embroidery on this square with white embroidery floss.

This square was probably the hardest to make. I used half inch satin ribbon to make a basket weave.

The ribbon kept slipping out of place so finally I used tape to hold it in place. When it was all woven in an over-under pattern, I sewed right through the tape holding the ribbon in place. After it was sewn I pulled the tape off and it worked great!

Then I sewed the squares together with a 1/4 " seam, right sides together, making two rows of three, then sewed the two rows together.

I measured the final patch front and cut a piece of cotton fabric the same size for the back.

I wanted a large eyelet trim so I pinned the trim to the back of the pillow. When I sewed the two sides together, the patchwork side was facing in, and the eyelet trim was sandwiched between the two pieces.