One of the first projects many sewing beginners decide to tackle is making a pillow.  The basic skills are easily mastered and immediately on completing your first successful pillow, every scrap and piece of interesting fabric suddenly becomes a potential pillow in your mind.  Face it, they're just plain fun. 

This quick tip will show you how to kick your pillow-projects to the next level by adding an elegant designer touch.  What makes this tip great is that it doesn't add anything to your project.  I like to use this with 12", 14" and 16" standard square accent pillows with a simple brush or loop fringe.  The technique is actually very simple and to illustrate we'll walk through a standard 12" pillow.  As with most home decorating projects, 1/2" is plenty of allowance as you lay out your pattern.

Instead of cutting out a standard 12" square, we're going to taper the pattern in toward the middle on each side. like the illustration below.

I actually have several pillow patterns that I cut out of a heavy cardboard that I purchased at an art shop.  Its easier to work with and the cardboard makes tracing the pattern out a snap.  The larger the pillow, the deeper the taper.  There's no real science to the measure of the taper either.  The fuller the fringe the deeper you can go.  Once stuffed, you'll be amazed by the result.  Your pillows will have a wonderful tailored look.

When staging marketing displays for furniture and other high end displays, I've seen designers spend tons of time Karate chopping the mid-line of their accent pillows in an effort to create the wonderful shape your pillows will always enjoy.

Have fun!

Gregory