A Shipment of Snowy Linens

I have a friend with cervical spine damage who is always on the hunt for the perfect pillow.  She asked me if I could make one for her that had the following qualities:

• flat, not too tall or fluffy
• loosely packed so that the fill can be shifted around to make cradle for the head
• a kind of fill that doesn't get either compacted or lumpy with use

I hemmed and hawed, because she's far away from me, so I wouldn't be able to run the prototype past her, but then, at Fabric Depot's warehouse sale in February, I saw Pellon's Forever Loft(R) Latex Fill steeply discounted, so I bought it.  If it doesn't meet her needs, it was only four bucks and a night of work.  Plus, it used up a bunch of my stash! 

Boudica being away for maintenance, I made everything with my serger.  I used up scrap muslin for the pillow, and used every shred of the latex fill to stuff it.  Then I closed it by hand with orange thread; I wanted the closure to be obvious in case my friend decided that there was too much stuffing, so she could open the original hole instead of making a new hole, and take some stuffing out. 

Then, using more white fabric from my stash, and using an eyelet lace ruffle salvaged from an old sheet, I made two pillow cases.

When attaching the ruffle, I used pleats on one pillowcase and gathers on the other, which gives a nice illustration of the look of the two techniques side by side.  I like gathers better for the eyelet lace ruffle: I think they have more body and look sweeter than the pleats. 

So I packed all the white stuff in a box, and tossed some other white things in there just to make the package even whiter!  I sent them to her in time for her birthday (which was yesterday). 

RESULTS

I hoped she would find the pillow useful for her neck problems, to help her sleep.  But her feedback was less than stellar: she liked the feel of the latex fiberfill in her hands, but didn't think there was enough of it in the pillow to really support her neck.  I suggested that she experiment with this pillow in conjunction with her others.  Then, if she still wants to double the amount of stuffing in the pillow, I gave her the name of the filler so she could find it at Joann's, and reminded her to open and close the pillow at the orange hand-stitching.  Then she worried that if she overstuffed the pillow, the pillowcases would no longer fit, and I told her that she needed to not worry about pillowcases, because the goal is to make something that works for her neck! 

So: not a success, but a step in the right direction, in that the fill has promise.