I think I’ve shared that one of my favorite places to shop is the Austin Creative Reuse Store. I know there are stores like it in other cities. It’s like an invitation to go through everyone’s stash and getting to pick the things you want and take them home! Prices are awesome, and you’ll never know what you’ll find! Here is my story about a new-to-me crewel embroidery pillow!

I found this UFO (UnFinished Object) and loved its potential, so I bought it. I think I spent $.50 on it. So much love and time had already been put into the crewel embroidery on the linen, I wanted to bring it home.

Piece of crewel work I found at a reuse store

You can see how little remained to do on this crewel piece. I don’t do a lot of crewel work, so my sister gave me some bits of yarn that went with the colors in this piece. I threaded my needle and went at it!

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Crewel uses many of the same stitches common in thread embroidery, but yarn is the stitching material instead of thread. I did quite a bit of satin stitch to complete the flowers, adding French knots to the centers of some of the flowers, and the stem stitch to complete the stems.

Auditioning different fabrics to make this piece into a pillow

One (1) decorator pillow

How to Finish a Crewel Embroidery Pillow

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Active Time: 55 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Difficulty: Beginner

What to do with the lovely needlepoint, crewel work or cross stitch you or someone else lovingly spent hours and hours stitching? Make a decorator pillow!

Materials

For a 20" pillow, 3/4 yard of home dec fabric that is 54-inches wide, or quilter's cotton that is 45-inches wide
20-inch pillow form
Thread
Finished needle work, needle point, crewel work or cross stitch

Tools

Sewing machine
Iron
Ironing board
Fabric scissors
Rotary cutter, optional
Cutting mat, optional

Instructions

I decided on a lovely green upholstery fabric that I had in my stash to make this crewel embroidery watering pot with flowers into a pillow. I had a 20-inch pillow form that I probably bought for a different project, but it was available! I measured the embroidery stitching on the linen and the height is about 9 1/2-inches and width about 8-inches. I trimmed the entire linen piece to be 12-inch square, so that there was a linen border around the crewel embroidery.
I cut 5-inch strips of the fabric to border the crewel embroidery to have enough for seam allowances. I started by sewing the fabric to the sides, right sides together, with 1/2-inch seam allowances.
Isn't this perfect fabric? I can't believe I had it in my stash!

After sewing the two sides, press the seams towards the upholstery fabric.
Next, sew a 5-inch strip of fabric to the top and bottom of the embroidery. Press seams toward the upholstery fabric.
The pillow top is done! Next, cut the pillow back from the same (or different, if you'd like!) fabric. Cut it the same size as your pillow top.
With right sides together, using a 3/4-inch seam allowance, sew three of the sides together. I like to use a larger seam allowance so there is plenty of room for stress on the seams. This is a loosely woven fabric, and you don't want it to pull apart.

I left the bottom open to put the pillow form in. I did sew about 2-inches in on each of the sides of the bottom seam, just so the corners would look the same and be sturdy from the machine sewing.

You'll see that I sewed each side all of the way edge-to-edge, then started at the edge to sew the next side. This helps make a nice square corner, and gives more stability to the corner.

Next, clip the corners diagonally about 2-3 stitches from the 90 degree sewing lines that form the corner.
Turn your pillowcase inside out. Gorgeous! Press the side seams flat.
You can see with the image above how I just sewed about 2-inches on each side of the bottom to make sure the corners were good. I'll hand sew the rest of the opening, after inserting the pillow form.

Insert the form. Here is the pillow with the pillow form.
I whip stitched the opening closed, and the pillow is done! Here is the finished upcycled crewel embroidery pillow in its new place - a quiet corner in the guest room. It makes me happy to think about the love and time that someone spent on almost finishing this crewel embroidery piece, and that I was able to finish it and make it into a pillow that I'll enjoy!