One Honey Bun – featured Hello Betty by Chloe’s Closet
One fat quarter (for backing)
16 inch pillow form
17 inch square of muslin or other fabric
17 inch square of muslin or other fabric
Heat n’ Bond sewable (light) iron on adhesive
buttons, pompoms, chenille, ribbon
Since the pillow we are making is 16 inches, we will cut the backing fabric 17 inches square. I just used whatever white fabric I had available, as it will not show. Use a clear acrylic quilters rule to mark pencil lines 1 to 2″ apart. Both vertically and horizontally. This will be somewhat of a guide to keep you straight and on track as you lay the fabric strips down.
Cut several 1/2″ strips of Heat n’ Bond.
Apply them to the backing fabric with a hot iron, about an inch apart
Pull all the paper strips off, exposing the adhesive (the lower five shiny rows you see above).
Determine how many strips from the honey bun you need for your square. For this size I needed 22 1.5″ wide strips (11 horizontally & 11 vertically). Pick the fabrics you will be using
and cut them into 17 inch lengths. (nip off those white selvage edges first.)
This next picture shows how I start a strip in the middle, one for each direction. For an accurate measure, I just butt strips side by side starting at the edge and leave the one in the middle.
Now you just start weaving strips in one at a time. Pretty much like we did in grade school, but in this case it is easiest if you start in the middle and work your way out. Alternating one horizontal and then one diagonal.
See how I just flop every other strip back to weave in a new strip? Then lay them back down and go do the same thing on the other side. When you complete the first corner, you might want to carefully slide it onto the ironing board for a quick press of the finished area (I used a large cutting mat to transport it) and then put it back on the worktable to complete the weaving. 
When you get to an end piece it’s helpful to pin back the strips that you are weaving under.
When the entire square is satisfactorily woven, go to the ironing board and press the piece well. Except for every other little end piece flapping loosely, it’s relatively secure at this point, but I would suggest you sew up and down each edge for added security (You will see I did that in the next photo). If you are adding a fabric silhouette piece, do so now. It’s easiest if you back a contrasting fabric with the iron on adhesive, cut out your shape, iron it down, then stitch around it.
If you are adding pompom trim to the edge, do so now. For beginning sewers who haven’t yet added trim like this, I’ll give a quickie lesson. Lay the pompom trim down with the poms facing inward as shown, butting the edge of the trim to the raw edge of the right side of your woven pillow top. Then sew a half inch seam all around. I like to sew in a little curve around each corner, rather than turning a sharp 90degree angle at each corner.
(Remember to note in the above photo how I sewed up and down each raw edged strip).
Now take your 18×22 fat quarter, trim it to 17×22, and cut in half so that you have two pieces that each measure 17×11. On one long side of each of those do a scant hem running the 17″ direction. (I fold over once, press, then zigzag stitch). Pin each of these two rectangles to your pillow front, right sides together, hemmed edges toward the center, and corners matching (I flapped up one end to illustrate the overlap you will have)
Now sew around all four sides, and turn your pillow cover right sides out. A lot of people might choose to just stitch a 17×17 backing square most of the way around, leave a little opening, turn right sides out, fill with stuffing and whip stitch the opening closed, but this way you can easily remove the pillow insert and wash the cover as needed.Make small marks on both sides of the pillow back, for two ribbon closures as shown.
I cut four equal lengths of ribbon, six or seven inches long. With each of the four pieces, place an end on the marked spot with the right side of the ribbon down as shown, stitch back and forth 2 or 3 times,
Then, without taking the piece from the machine, leave the needle in the down position in the fabric, raise the machine foot, flip the ribbon over right side up, and stitch back and forth over the ribbon 2 or 3 times again. 
Don’t you agree this is a nicer way to finish a pillow? I thought you would!
The sweet shabbiness happens after you wash it a time or two.
When I pulled this out of the dryer I had to cut off a lot of threads that had unraveled from the raw edges, but because Moda uses a mini zigzag cut on the edges(they think of everything!) it is really quite minimal. Just the right amount of ‘fuzziness’, in my opinion. I really had such fun making this and kept having ideas for other ways to decorate it so I had to immediately make a second one. I remembered I had some of this instant *chenille* that I’d bought several years ago.
(You can find it here and there online if you google “Chenille-It”)
I did not stitch down each side of each strip as I did above, I just laid two strip of the chenille tape (double layer for extra fluffiness) down over each strip edge and sewed down the center as shown in this next picture
Then, as you can see, I thought about putting pom poms at each or every other intersection, but ultimately I decided to add buttons.
I think for this option to really work you want to have a wide variety of buttons. A real “Grandma’s stash” assortment. 🙂
The *magic* happens with this chenille after a machine wash and dry.
I can’t say it was “fun” sewing down 100 buttons through all the layers, but I am glad that I did it. 🙂
Well, now I have TWO very similar pillows, so I think I’ll give the bird and pompoms one away to someone. Come leave a comment on the pillow post at my blog and it might be to YOU! WINNER HAS BEEN DRAWN. THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO CAME AND COMMENTED!
Two pillows with a fair amount of leftover strips and pieces for another project on another day.
White 51/2″ squares.
5. This is set “E” It is one print strip, one 3 1/2″ white strip, one print strip. Make one set. Press all seams one way.
Now you will cross cut these lettered sets into 1 1/2″ strips.
From set B: Cut 26- 1 1/2″ strips
From set C: Cut 26- 1 1/2″ strips
From set D: Cut 13- 1 1/2″ strips
From set E: Cut 24- 1 1/2″ strips
From set F: Cut 24- 1 1/2″ strips
Now you will sew these 1 1/2″ strips together to make two blocks: The flower block, and the white block.
These are the letters of the strips for the flower block:
modafabrics 