A goose feather pillow - finally.

Back in March, hubby went on a goose hunt and came home with six geese. If you'll remember, I kept some of the goose feathers with the intention of making a pillow.

The first step in making a goose-feather pillow is to freeze any creepy crawlies out of the feathers. I filled a trash bag with feathers and stuck them in the freezer for two weeks. Then I pulled them out for a week (giving any remaining eggs a chance to hatch) and put them back in for another four weeks. At the end of this process, any lice, etc. are supposed to be dead. I hope.

The feathers then sat in my craft room until July, when I finally got around to making a muslin sack for them. Of course, Two Little Girls were more than happy to help stuff the pillow.



And then the plain muslin pillow sat for another three and a half months until today, when I finally got around to making a cute little pillowcase for it.



The inspiration for the pillowcase came from Sew Liberated - the book that also had the pattern for the cute little apron I made awhile back. Of course, I had to return that book to the library months ago, so I just worked from memory. I'm happy with the result though.
Simple applique using scrap fabric and a hand-drawn pattern, and the blanket stitch setting on my sewing machine. This is the kind of project that in and of itself isn't terribly exciting or unique, but it's one I'll love dearly since I know what went into making it.

Truly, it wasn't hard. There is no good reason for the fact that it took me six months, other than that I just kept getting distracted. I informed my dear husband that I'd like to make more. The look he gave me made it clear that he has no intention of spending that much time plucking goose feathers again. Darn. I guess I should give up on the idea of a goose-down body pillow then...