How to Use Templates for Pillow Pairs

Follow this helpful guide to create a pillow pair using templates.

Supplies & Materials:

Project Materials or Supplies

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Blank pillow form
Fabric for pillowcase
Quilters ruler
Scissors or rotary cutter
Embroidery thread
Paper templates
Cut away stabilizer
Fabric marking tool (such as heat erase pens )

The designs used in this tutorial include:

-EDP86153-1, Color Theory Gerbera Daisy Details Design Pack

Gather Materials:

Pillow pairs are made of up of 2-3 designs. One is the featured design that will usually be in the center, as well as one or two designs that will be the corner elements framing the featured design. This tutorial will walk you through using templates of these designs to make a fully embroidered pillow.

A template, or printout, of a design is an excellent tool to help with placement. Print a template of the design using an embroidery software.

We recommend Wilcom's Hatch software which comes in different levels depending on what you'd like to use the software for. Hatch Organizer works well to view your designs, print dielines and templates, change design colors, and create basic design layouts. (This is an affiliate link. We may earn commission on purchased made through this link.

White fabric square with five colorful floral embroidery designs in orange, yellow, green, and blue, arranged within blue grid lines on the fabric.

To start the pillow cover using the pillow pair designs, determine which size of pillow blank you will be using. In this example ours is 18" by 18". This will help determine the size of the pillow pair designs you use.

White square pillow on a gray surface next to three printed embroidery design templates featuring floral patterns with leaves in muted colors.

Use a fabric marking tool of your choice to draw a box on the right side of your chosen fabric indicating the edges of your pillow cover front. Ours will be 20" by 20" to account for the seam allowance and fullness of the pillow form.

White fabric square with two blue hand-drawn rectangular outlines, a clear quilting ruler with yellow grid lines, and a blue fabric marking pen on a gray surface.

Pillow pair placement is easiest when starting with the feature design. Since this will be in the center of the pillow, framed by the corner designs, you can figure out the placement for the featured design by dividing the box in half vertically and horizontally. Use a quilting ruler to draw the cross hairs.

Clear plastic quilting ruler marked with yellow grid lines and numbers placed on white fabric with blue pen lines, next to a blue pen on a gray surface.

After drawing the cross hairs for the featured design, cut a piece of stabilizer larger than your hoop. Spray the stabilizer with temporary spray adhesive and smooth in place on the wrong side of the fabric behind the cross hairs. Using a separate piece of stabilizer for each of the designs helps to limit the amount of puckering due to multiple designs.

A hand lifting a translucent white sheet, revealing a piece of white fabric beneath it against a plain white background.

Start Embroidering:

Hoop the fabric and stabilizer together.

Square embroidery hoop with rounded corners holds white fabric marked with blue intersecting lines, against a white quilted background.

Attach the hoop to the embroidery machine and follow the color change sheet for your chosen design to embroider out the featured design.

Close-up of an embroidery machine stitching two large orange and yellow flowers with dark pink centers and green leaves on white fabric.

After the design has finished embroidering, remove the hoop from the machine. Unhoop the design and carefully trim away the excess stabilizer.

Pair of fabric scissors with gray handles beside a piece of white fabric featuring a colorful embroidered floral design with three large orange and pink flowers and green leaves.

Now for the fun part! Determine the layout for the corner pieces by using your templates to visualize the completed pillow By adjusting how close or far the corners are placed from the feature design, you can create different effects and fit a range of pillow sizes.

White fabric square with hand-drawn grid lines and floral embroidery patterns including orange-centered daisies in the center and four corner flower templates with leaves.

Once you've decided where you would like the corners to be, in this example we chose to place the corners closer to closely frame the featured design, use your marking tool and quilters ruler to draw the cross hairs for the first corner design.

Clear fabric with outlines drawn in blue marker forming grid squares, a pen, a ruler, and printed floral applique templates arranged around an orange and yellow sunflower embroidery.

Continue after the first corner to repeat marking the cross hairs in the three remaining corners.

White fabric with a design of three orange and yellow flowers with green leaves, a blue pen pointing at the design, and a transparent ruler with yellow markings.

Decide which corner you would like to start with. Again, spray a piece of cutaway stabilizer with temporary spray adhesive and place on the wrong side of your fabric. Continue to hoop the fabric and stabilizer like before.