V and Co how to: shag pillow

*no animals or plants were hurt in the making of this project.
*one really stupid person did get hurt in the making of this project, but she would like to mention that even though the needle penetrated...no swear words passed her lips. it's was a modern day miracle.

i love how this pillow turned out. i made it in green for two reasons:
1. it's still kind of cold here, and still kind of brown...will be for a little bit longer so i wanted some GREEN and springy looking happiness in my home.
2. it's the only color of jersey i had on hand, and living in the middle of nowhere doesn't let me just jump in the car and go to a store that i can find jersey fabric at (which btw this fabric was found at jo-anns but i would suggest amazon if you can't find what you are looking for, that's where i get a lot of mine when i can't find stuff)

okay here's what you will need:
*1 yard (to be safe in case of mess ups) of jersey fabric with the width of 60" (jersey comes in a bolt length of anywhere from 42" to 62" or even wider...but the most common i've found is 58" to 60")
*2 squares of cotton fabric close in matching color to your jersey fabric cut to 11" x 15" (if you make a slightly larger pillow you will still be okay because you will have a little extra fabric)

now lets get started:
cutting:

*cut from jersey fabric 19 strips at 1 1/2" each.


*from each of the 19 strips cut 15: 4" length rectangles. (you should be able to get 15, but if your fabric is wonky, and you get less than 15 it's okay because remember you have extra fabric.)
*in the end you will end up with a few extra rectangles (depending on how many you put in each row (you'll see later) but all of my rows had 14 or 15 rectangles total.)
*now take your two cotton rectangles cut to 11" x 15"
*and on 1 of the right sides of your fabric, draw 3/4" lines all the way across your rectangle. (you should get 19 lines)
*now take one of your jersey rectangles, and measure at least 1/4" down from the top of your pillow fabric...
*and sew using your drawn line as your guide your jersey strip onto the pillow fabric.
***** i scrunched the jersey fabrics in the middle, but i didn't make them uniform because i wanted them to be different widths (you really can't mess this up, it's not exact but you will get basically the same look with the little variations that will happen when each individual makes it.)

*you will continue down the line making a small gap in between the jersey strips. i used a total of 14 to 15 jersey strips per drawn line.( i would say a certain measurement...but i just eyeballed it and didn't really measure it looks like around 1/4" or 1/2" in between each like i said, if you don't follow what i did exactly you will come out with the pretty close to the same result.)
*make sure you leave at least 1/4" gap from the edge of your bottom edge of your pillow fabric. (i didn't on the first line and had a little bit of an issue later on trying not to get it caught in my seam.)
*once you have your first line done, push over your jersey strips to make the next line visible.
*and then repeat what you did on the first line.
****note: i did try to stagger the jersey strips in between the gaps of the first line. so it would fill in a little better. (remember this project is REALLY forgiving so it does NOT have to be exact)
*continue doing this for all 19 drawn lines.
you will see the shag appear as you continue to sew on your jersey strips.

*once all your strips are sewn on, we are now ready to make it into a pillow!
*move all the strip ends away from the edge like the picture above.
*place on top and start pinning with right sides together the second cotton 11" x 15" rectangle.

*make sure none of your "tails" of the strips get caught in the pinned seam.
*sew all four sides leaving an opening (at least 4") in the middle of one side (this will be your bottom of the pillow) for stuffing.
*turn your pillow form inside out, stuff, and hand stitch close.
you are so done.
and enjoy a totally cool pillow.
i'm making some in other colors for my couch and on my bed, and on katie's and the boys' beds...kidding but i am making more in other colors cause i LOVE them!
you can even make little rodents play in the grassy knoll.
katie's put her rapunzel barbie on it (you know like in the movie when she's all excited to touch grass for the first time...okay i'm rambling now.)

make this pillow.
it's cool.
the end.