Hit the Open Road Pillow Sewing Tutorial

Below you will find a free pillow sewing tutorial for my Hit the Open Road Pillow, it a perfect pillow to decorate your RV and part of my #goRVing blog project. To read about our experiences with our RV CLICK HERE.

Hit the Open Road Pillow Pattern & Tutorial:

Open Road Pillow Supplies:

20″ Pillow Form

Scraps of Fabric

Heat N Bond Lite

Lightbox or Bright Window

Pencil

21″ long (or longer) polyester zipper

¼ yard of fabric for pillow binding

20″ x 20″ piece of fabric for pillow front

2 pieces of fabric each 20″ x 11″ for pillow back

Template for letters; Download it for free on the TEMPLATES PAGE.

OPTIONAL: If you’d like to make this project a no-sew project, purchase an already sewn 20″ pillow cover and 20″ pillow insert. You will also need to purchase Heat N Bond Ultra Hold instead of Lite. If you choose to do this, just skip the portion of the tutorial where the letters are stitched down.

STEP 1:

Download and print out the letter template onto plain paper. Make sure your settings in Acrobat are “actual size” and not “fit to page”.

With the paper upside down (so the letters are reversed) trace the letters onto the paper side of the Heat N Bond Lite.

Cut out loosely around the letters.

STEP 2:

Using an iron, press each letter onto the wrong side of a scrap of fabric.

Cut out precisely.

STEP 3:

Peel off the backs of the letters and begin to lay them out on your pillow front piece. I find it helpful to mark the center of the pillow both horizontally and vertically before I lay out the letters.

Once you have the letters in the correct spots, use your iron to secure them in place.

STEP 4:

Using a straight stitch on your sewing machine, stitch around the perimeter of each letter. Make sure that you pivot at all of the corners.

STEP 5:

Place the right side of one side of the zipper on the right side of one of the pillow back piece, along the 20″ side. Stitch in place using a zipper foot. If your zipper is longer than your pillow, let the end of the zipper hang over the side of the pillow piece.

Place the right side of the other side of the zipper to the right side of the other pillow back piece.

Press seam open and top stitch down both sides of the zipper.

Trim the entire piece down to 20″ x 20″. It’s okay to trim off the end of the zipper, just make sure it’s not the end of the zipper with the zipper pull. Also, do not unzip the zipper until the pillow construction is finished.

STEP 6:

Place the pillow front and pillow back pieces WRONG sides facing. Stitch around the edge with a ⅜″ seam allowance.

Cut 3 strips of binding fabric each 2 ½″ wide by the length of the fabric. Stitch the pieces together along the short ends and trim the seam allowances down to ⅛″.

Press the binding in half with the wrong sides facing.

You will next bind the pillow in the same way that you would bind a quilt. Place the raw edge of the binding flush with the raw edge of the back side of the pillow. Stitch in place using a ¼″ seam allowance. Pivot at corners.

Fold the binding over to the front of the pillow and press. Secure in place using binding clips. I find it also helps to use a bit of glue or seam tape to hold the binding in place.

Stitch binding down by stitching close to the folded edge of the binding on the front of the pillow.

Unzip the zipper and insert the pillow form. CONGRATS! You’re done!