Professional Pillow Fabrication

My pillows

     A couple of weeks ago I went to Custom Home Furnishings Academy (CHF Academy) to take a class, Professional Pillow Fabrication.  They are located in Roswell GA, not too far from the Atlanta airport.  I flew in on a Tuesday evening and checked into my hotel for the night.  The next morning we met in the lobby and took a short van ride to the academy.

Wanda and her pillows

     There were five students in class, Wanda, Michelle, Annette, Cindy and myself.  Donna Cash from Designs by Donna was our instructor.  Donna was great.  She first talked about some of the basics of pillow construction and then patiently helped us learn how to use the industrial machines.

Michelle and her pillows

     We made a basic knife edge pillow first with covered cord and a zipper inserted above the bottom back seam.  I learned a new technique for joining the ends of the covered cord that looks so much better than the way I have been doing it.

Annette and her pillows

     We then made a bolster pillow with an invisible zipper.  I made two different ends, one flat and one gathered so I could learn both techniques.  We then put a button on each end using a long needle to thread the cord through.  That was difficult as the needle wasn't quite long enough and we had to smoosh the pillow to get it through.

Cindy and her pillows

     We then made a round knife edge pillow.  Wow!! I got a round pillow that didn't look like a pancake.  A bit of hand sewing involved with it but it turned out great.

Me and my pillows

     The last pillow we did was a mitered flange pillow.  I opted to add some covered cord between the flange and the pillow front.  That did mess up my ability to make nice tight corners.  I had to sew it several times to get it to look nice.  Don't think I will be offering that as an option :-)  It also had the zipper in the seam.

     I wish we had time to make another pillow, like a boxed pillow or one with turkish corners.  All in all it was a great class and I learned so much even though I have been making pillows for a while.  I hope I can go back soon and take the other course to earn my Professional Bedding Certificate.