reading pillows

A few weeks ago, I offered to make pillows for an old friend's kindergarten classroom. One of her biggest challenges as a kindergarten teacher is teaching her students to read. She works so hard to get them excited about it, so I thought some cozy pillows for her reading area might help. 

Most of the fabric for these came from my scrap bins. It was fun to include some hard-to-find stuff, like original Flea Market Fancy and fish-in-bags Munki Munki, knowing that I'm the only one who will recognize it as such. The backing is an Ikea canvas that I've had forever. 

I enclosed the pillows with invisible zips for the first time. I used Katie's tutorial, which was clear and perfect. But if I do it again, next time I'll buy an invisible zipper foot. 

I'll admit that after so much time lately of not sewing, it felt foreign. Like I had to relearn my machines. I couldn't find my bobbins, extra feet, etc. Part of it was a failed sewing room rearrangement that I thought would make things more efficient. Then things just kept going wrong. My serger pooped out on me. I used a yellow chalk pen for some quilting lines on the blue pillow when I set my hera marker down and couldn't find it, and now that yellow chalk won't come out. Anyway, not my finest sewing. 

But I think the kids will like them.