As you create a roomful of projects, you want to start with a focal point and flow outward from there. Our room centers on an ornate king bed and the beautiful, billowing Layered Bed Curtains and Valance, which we introduced on Monday of this week. Now we begin to add in the other projects that will continue to build an aura of comfort and romance. A dramatic bolster pillow is always a stand-out in any pile-o-pillows, and we took full advantage of our pillow’s 30″ length to showcase a bold fussy cut. The beautiful medallions of the Angelica design from Amy Butler’s Cameo collection for Rowan Fabrics was the perfect choice. We then added elegant tasseled fringe (a match to the valance trim) and slinky stretch velvet knotted into flowing tails on either end. Our thanks to our friends at FreeSpirit and Rowan fabrics for sponsoring the Romantic Bedroom Retreat series, which covers three weeks of beauty and imagination: nine tutorials, five techniques and one Great Giveaway!

The Romantic Bedroom Retreat features four collections from Westminster Fibers Lifestyle Fabrics: FreeSpirit Pagoda Lullaby by Tina Givens, FreeSpirit The Birds & The Bees by Tula Pink, Rowan Bromley by Victoria & Albert and Rowan Cameo by Amy Butler. Today’s project uses a beautiful cotton from Amy Butler’s Cameo collection. Want to learn more about how we brought together these four different collections into a cohesive design? Take a look at our tutorial: A Romantic Bedroom Retreat with Rowan & FreeSpirit Fabrics: How to Mix and Match Designer Fabric Collections.

For all of the projects in our series, Westminster helped us put together a very handy Where to Buy Retailer Locator, giving you a fast and easy way to source the fabrics we are featuring from both brick and mortar stores in your area (the page is broken out by state) as well as online options. The collections have just coming out now in-store and online.

Sewing Tools You Need

• Any sewing machine (we recommend the Janome Decor Computer 2012)
• Walking foot (optional but very helpful with these fabrics)

Fabric and Other Supplies

Our pillow form measured 8″ x 30″, which is longer than a standard bolster, but correct in order to not get lost on our ornate king size bed. You could certainly make your bolster larger or smaller; simply adjust your cuts proportionately. The drawing below shows you the pillow measurements on which you can base any changes.

• ¾ yard of 44-45″ wide cotton fabric for the center feature panel; we used Cameo in Angelica Zinc by Amy Butler for Rowan Fabrics
  NOTE: If you are new to fussy cutting and/or choose a fabric with a large repeat, we recommend purchasing a full yard of the feature fabric.
• ¾ yard of 60″ wide stretch velvet fabric for the end panels; we used olive stretch velvet (purchased locally) in order to match one of the accent colors in the Amy Butler fabric and to coordinate with our tassel trim, which is the same trim we used on the Layered Bed Curtain Valance
  NOTE: Do you HAVE to use stretch velvet? No. But you do need something that is nice and wide, has a good texture, and will tie into a knot. 
• 1½ yards of heavy decorative tassel trim; we used tri-tassel upholstery quality trim with accent crystals (purchased locally)
• One 8″ x 30″ bolster pillow form; we found ours on Amazon
• All-purpose thread to match fabrics and trim
• See-through ruler
• Tape measure
• Fabric pen or pencil
• Iron and ironing board
• Scissors or rotary cutter and mat
• Seam gauge
• Seam ripper
• Straight pins

Getting Started

1. Remember, as mentioned above, our cuts and instructions are for a 8″ x 30″ pillow form.
2. From the fabric for the center feature panel (Angelica Zinc in our sample), fussy cut ONE 19″ wide x 26″ high rectangle.
3. From the fabric for the end panels (olive stretch velvet in our sample), cut one piece 26″ x the width of the fabric. In reality, this means you are trimming just 1″ from your yardage. We recommend cutting ½” from the top and bottom to insure you have a nice straight edge on both the top and bottom. Then, cut your 26″ x WOF piece in half, so you end up with TWO 26″ x 30″ cuts.
   NOTE: As above with the feature fabric, if you are less confident about your precision cutting skills, get a full yard of the stretch velvet so you have more fabric with which to work.

At Your Sewing Machine & Ironing Board

1. Pin a velvet panel to either side of the center panel, aligning the 26″ sides.
2. Using a ½” seam allowance, stitch both sides in place. We recommend a Walking foot for this project, because velvet always wants to creep, and this particular velvet wants to both creep and stretch. A Walking foot has its own built in top feed dogs to work in combination with the machine’s bottom feed dogs to keep tricky layers of fabric from shifting.
   
3. Finger press the seam allowances flat or use a cool iron and a pressing cloth and press from the back. You don’t want to damage the nap of the velvet.
4. Cut the trim into two 26″ lengths.
5. Place the trim along each center/side panel seam, positioning it so the flat braid is sitting on the center panel with the bottom edge of the braid laying right along the seam. The tassels are then hanging over the velvet. Pin in place or use a temporary adhesive.
6. For the best stability, stitch the trim in place with a top and bottom seam.
   
   NOTE: Stretch velvet does not ravel, so we left the ends as a smooth cut edge. However, you can certainly hem your edges. This is the point in the project at which you would do this. Simply make a narrow, double turn hem or a rolled hem along the raw edge of each of the end panels.
7. Fold the entire sewn piece in half, right sides together, aligning the long sides. Pin in place to create a long tube.
8. Using a ½” seam allowance, stitch the length of the tube.
9. Finger press the seam flat or use a pressing cloth and a cool iron from the back.
10. Turn right side out.
11. Slip the pillow form into place and center it end to end.
12. Tie the open ends shut with a simple overhand knot.
    
    NOTE: If your selected fabric is too stiff or thick to tie into a nice knot you could gather the fabric up against the end of the bolster, then wrap the fabric with thread, ribbon or scrap fabric. Wrap it several times and cinch it securely against the ends of the bolster. You can then simply tuck in the ends of the tie, if it’s something pretty, or cover the tie with matching fabric to the end panels.