This is such a great site. You are getting lots of great advice. Oh, I do hope you can keep in touch with your friend.

My "slumberparty gang" had thier 25th anniversary many years ago. We grown up woman all stay in a hotel, passed out silver gifts. Mine was silver slippers.. I had spray painted terry cloth slippers and added silver bows. the bows were fantastic. the slippers were gray and ... we found out hours later.. NOT DRY ! our feet were silver for the night in the sheets !! what a fun night ! WE all giggled just like middle school friends.

Thanks for reminding me and good luck to you and your friend's days ahead!!! SHe will love your gift !

Alright people. Thanks to everyone's great advice, I have all but finished this pillow in ONE day. I will post pictures tomorrow (the camera is dead). I only made a few mistakes...I forgot to leave some white space around the edges of the pictures for the seam allowance...and every now and then one of my seams wasn't straight. So apart from a half-missing face or two, everything looks great. I am going to stuff it tomorrow and then I will take some pictures. Once again thanks a ton for all the help.

Oh yea, P.S what is the best way to close the gap at the bottom after I stuff the pillow.

If you sew your pillow 2 inches larger than your template. Fuse the photos in place inside the two inches. Place right sides together and sew all the way around the edge of the fabric with the sewing machine foot on the edge of the fabric. Leave a opening about 6 inches on the bottom of the pillow to stuff it. This will allow your photos to be more centered and not on the top of the pillow after you stuff it. You can use fleece on the back of the pillow. It would be sweet to write with a fabric pen some sweet thoughts for her from you. Good luck and congrandulations on 4 years. you can finish the bottom by hand sewing it shut or folding the seams in and sewing it shut on your sewing machine.

I can't wait to see the pictures!!

IF you must finish it up by machine, there's a video here
http://www.expertvillage.com/video/7...nal-stitch.htm
however, I will tell you that I would leave my opening towards the center of the seam rather than at the corner. This is because it stands out and rarely matches the other corner and is more difficult to re-stuff/fluff after you sew.
I prefer a blind stitch (aka the blind hem) for a more expensive look....she's gonna love it regardless, but if you purchase throw pillows at a discount store, they're closed by machine----if you purchase custom or higher end pillows, they are hand stitched.
http://www.sewingitall.com/guide-to-hand-stitches.html While you will see various needles being used on sites to demonstrate the techniques, I've used all types and havnen't had any problems...plus if my stitches are irregular, the blind stitch is the perfect way to hide them.
Hope that this is helpful.

What a great idea. I made a memory quilt for my granddauguter for her high school graduation. I incorporated a picture from each year of her life. Some were candid snapshots and some were school pictures. I had no means of doing the copies so I brought it to a copy store (Sir Speedy) along with yardage of muslin. They made color copies of the photos and then copied them onto the muslin. The lady who did the copies was a "sew-er" so she knew to leave enough space between the photo copies so that I'd have plenty of seam allowances. Since you haven't made the copies onto the fabric yet, be sure that you have space between the pictures to have a seam allowance. One more suggestion. If you have too many photos for one pillow, consider making more than one pillow. OR, put some on each side of the pillow. Another thing I did with mine was: I added strips of brightly colored fabric (or something that blended well with the photo) to form a mat. Good luck with your great project.

What a lucky girl your girlfriend is! She will love this. If I were you, I'd print the pictures on fabric rather than iron on. They will last longer and you will probably get a better picture. I have purchased the special fabric paper at Walmart, and my project turned out fine. Good luck and be sure to post the finished project.

just to update...I'm going to redo the one I made. My regional tailor (I work at Men's Wearhouse) gave me a great idea to close the pillow. He helped me sew a zipper on the back with a small flap covering the zipper, so now I can sew all the way around and turn it inside out from the zipper and stuff it from the back. I'll post a picture either later tonight or tomorrow.

Waiting like six year old! (is it here yet?)

I can't wait to see it! :mrgreen: