DIY- Sea and Sand Throw Pillow

 Happy Monday!  While browsing around on my new favorite place, Pintrest, I found this painting and fell in love.

Isn't that lovely?  I want to be there, greeting the day.  Well, I don't really paint, but you know I love fabric and a challenge.  So I decided to create a pillow for my couch - a nice reminder that summer is coming.  This is what I came up with:

Can you see the sky, water, and sand?  I didn't want it to be super literal - you know like "oh she has a pillow of the beach on her couch....." But I am pretty happy with how it came out.  This design would be pretty in any color combination - I thought about an all blue one - starting with a dark blue and fading into a light.  If you'd like to make one - here's a loose tutorial on what I did.

Step 1:  The basis for the pillow is pleats.  The top, gold portion is all one piece, just folded up to make pleats.  Then I slid in one little strip of blue to mimic some clouds.

I continued cutting strips (about 21" long) and pressing them into pleats....various shades of blue for the water and tan/brown for the sand.  My first layout looked like this:

I changed it a little bit.

Step 2:  Once I had all of the strips cut out, I cut out the front and back pillow pieces - about 21" x 18".  I just used a nice cream.  Then I started at the top of the pillow and sewed the pleats onto the pillow front.

I also inserted those little "waves".  Just a small strip of pleats running the opposite way.

Once all of the pleats were topstitched on, I sewed the back piece on with  right sides together.  

Be sure to leave an opening in the bottom so you can turn/stuff it.  

Step 3:  The waves.  I started to hand stitch the waves on...then got frustrated and pulled out the hot glue gun.  I just glued those sheer pieces on where I wanted them - you can't see the glue and it was super easy.  Lastly I hand-whipped the opening closed, and tossed it on my couch:

It looks a little lonely right now - it needs some more summer/spring pillows to share it's home.  But it makes me really happy to sit beside it and dream of the ocean.  Have a great day!

xoxo

jessica