Breaking Into The Silk

I have a confession to make – I hoard silk.  Every once in a while I pull out the container with my silk stash and murmur “my precious” as I pet my collection.  That collection includes a piece of silk my mother bought when I was in high school and a bolt of silk crepe my grandmother had bought to sew into ladies’ delicate undergarments. Did I mention the 25 fat eighths of solid color dupioni I’ve had since 2005?

Oh, I’ve used a bit of silk dupioni in a table runner and have made a few wall hangings out of silk ties, but the bulk of the reds, yellows, purples, and lustrous prints has been awaiting my magnum opus.

But as I work towards using up the fabric I have rather than buying more, all that silk is beginning to niggle at me.  So I’ve begun easing bits of it into small projects, like pillows.

The silk I own is mostly dupioni, which has a shimmer, but is prone to shred at the edges – not good for cutting into small pieces.  Other silk in my collection is slithery.  All except the crepe ravels badly.  What I do to counteract some of this behavior is to iron fusible knit interfacing to the back of the material before I cut it.

This interfacing comes in white and black and makes the silk much easier to handle.  The only downside is the seams are a bit bulky, especially with the dupioni.  I sometimes iron them open to try to deal with this.

I decided to make something functional with my silk, and settled on a large pillow since some of my decorative pillows look a bit tired. I pulled out a hand painted silk scarf I picked up for a few bucks at a tag sale and my collection of dupioni fat eighths. After fusing interfacing to the backs I cut some simple squares and rectangles and sewed them together.

I used 30 weight cotton thread for the stitch work after fusing the top to fleece. Then I recalled some leftover batik backing material and made what turned into a flange around the edge, with mitered corners.  I used up the last of that batik to make the back, combining it with the last of another piece from my stash.

The buttons came about after I realized that none of my zippers were long enough and by this time I was on a kick to use only what I already had.  So I finally used the sensor buttonhole maker on the sewing machine I’ve had since 2006.

The buttons came from my jar of all those extra buttons that come with clothing.

Now all I need to do is buy a pillow form to fit.  That is not in my stash, drat it.