The Candy Cane Pillow

Finally- a relevant picture! Take your accent strip and fold it in half, pinch to make a crease. Do the same thing with your 4″ wide base fabric. Match up the creases and pin with right sides facing up on both pieces.
Gather up the sides of the accent fabric and pin along the base fabric. It will look like this. (a note, the center strip is the only one that needs to be gathered the entire length of the base strip, the outer edges will be cut significantly and really only need to be gathered in the center, so don’t spend all day gathering pieces that will get cut off. Use a ruler or template of the finished pillow to determine how long your gathered pieces need to be on the sides.)

Once your first *center* strip is gathered, take one of the 5″ wide base pieces and put it on top of the gathered piece, right sides together. Sew using a 1/2″ seam allowance. Fold the base fabric back and top stitch down the seam allowance on the top. Repeat with the other side of the center strip. Then repeat the process for the two side strips. Your finished piece should be base, accent strip, base, accent strip, base, accent strip, base. Cut out the pillow front from this finished piece, centering the corners on a diagonal from the center accent strip. I found it easiest to cut out a template of the pillow front and use that to cut out the pillow. When cutting the corners of the center strip, you will want to pin down the gathers, since you will be cutting off the stitching that holds them in place. Alternatively, you could put the back of the pillow on the piece of fabric, sew around leaving an opening for turning and then trim out the excess fabric- this will save worrying about the gathers getting loose. Stuff the pillow, close as desired and you’re done. I made a lot of mistakes, but I really like it and my kids adore it. It was my 7 year old son who named it the candy cane pillow! Now I can get it out of my head and just leave it on the couch ;)!