DIY Travel lace pillow / folding lacemaking pillow instructions

I've made myself a fold-up bobbin lacemaking pillow for my Bucks Point lacemaking, so I've written these notes in case they might help other lacemakers. I was inspired and motivated by some tutorials I found online - see the section below on Resources.  This is what my version looks like.  It has front and back working aprons stiffened with card, and when folded up into a tote bag, there are fabric sides for security.

Background and resources

This project came about as I became increasingly annoyed by working a one inch wide Bucks edging on a 24 inch pillow, and wondering if there was a more portable option that still gave me enough room for my bobbins. Of course, googling ‘lace travel pillow’ finds all sorts of wonderful constructions, including this tutorial by the Edinburgh Lace Club .  Via Pinterest, I found this tutorial on a French blog by Christiane which looked more like what I wanted.  As helpful as her tutorial is, my computer doesn't seem to like her website as I couldn’t find any way to pause the slide show nor easily print off the photos, plus the steps seem to be displaying out of order  And it’s in French.  Several  other French bloggers have used Christiane's tutorial to make their own versions which will also appear in your google results and might inspire your fabric choices.

I decided to build my own travel lace pillow based on Christiane's photos. I initially planned to create a detailed tutorial in English, but I soon found that it was more complicated than I expected and that I was having to improvise on many steps.  So instead I have written these notes as a record of what I did.

I also realised partway through that if I stiffened all segments of the apron surrounding the pillow as the French lacemakers have done, I was going to end up with a pillow which was actually wider than my 24-inch pillow! Perhaps with continental bobbins, you need the stiff apron all around, but for making Bucks Point I think I only need a front apron that is wide enough/deep enough, and a back apron for stability where I can rest bobbins I'm not currently using.

So having got to the stage of a finished central box holding my roller, I mocked up an apron out of scrap fabric with inserted boards at the front and back, and experimented with methods of folding up and fastening the pillow while keeping the sides closed in for security and cleanliness. I decided to have ‘floppy’ sides that I can tuck out of the way while I’m using the pillow, but which can be securely fastened in transit to keep dirt out / possessions inside.  The following is a description of how I made my lacemaking pillow, with a huge debt of gratitude to Christiane's tutorial  for getting me started.

 I apologise for the mixture of imperial and metric measurements, I'm of an age where I have never fully converted to metric.

A note on materials: Throughout this project I used Aline’s Designer Super Thick Tacky Glue (then when that ran out, Aline’s Super Thick Tacky Glue) which is superb for gluing fabric, and normal Aline’s Tacky Glue for the middle of larger card areas where I applied it with a brush. The fabric I have used is quilt-weight 100% cotton fabric. My roller is made from a pool noodle padded with strips of good quality wool felt. You will see in the notes that I used picture framing matboard for most of my card sections (scraps obtained for free by asking at my local framing shop), but heavier card cut from an office box file lid and base for my front and back working aprons. I used a metal ruler and a Stanley knife for cutting the card on a self-healing cutting mat, being careful to keep my fingers well out of the way of the blade. I stitched most of my seams by machine. I padded my working surfaces with Hobb's 80/20 Heirloom quilt wadding (batting) which is a needlepunched 80% cotton/20% polyester wadding that is thin but denser than thin polyester wadding/batting. As I had all of the above in my multi-crafting stash, this project did not cost me anything to make beyond what I had originally spent on these supplies in the past.

   ------------------------------------

Start with the roller.  The size of your roller will determine all subsequent dimensions.  I made my roller out of a segment of pool noodle, wound round with long strips of wool felt that I had in my stash. I wanted a wider roller than some of the online examples, in case I get better at lace and can make wider projects later on.  I added a cover (seamed into a tube on the sewing machine), then gathered in both ends of the tube tightly with strong thread and pressed the gathers flat with my iron.  I neatened the ends of the roller by cutting two card circles slightly smaller than the diameter of the roller, covering them in fabric, then gluing them on either side of the roller and clamping until dry. My roller ended up measuring around 16cm long by x 10cm in diameter.

Make the outer box.  The box will be the bottom of the tote bag in transit.  I made mine slightly higher than the radius of my roller measurement so less than half of my roller is visible above the box. The box needs to hold the roller snugly so the roller doesn’t spin when in use. I allowed space on either side of the roller for two equal-sized storage compartments.   My finished box measurements [after adding the final bottom piece] are around 7cm high x 10cm deep by 32cm long.  I constructed my box in the way shown in Christiane's tutorial: by sewing a tube of fabric, folding it in half, and stitching seams partway across to divide the tube into segments for the sides while leaving a generous flap of fabric free on the open sides. I inserted picture framing matboard pieces into the segments for stiffening but subsequently found that this card is too ‘bendy’ for the long sides of the box which have to stand up to the roller pushing against them.  I also found that this construction method is not very rigid since the card pieces don’t actually connect to each other and are only held together with fabric.  If I were doing it over, I would use heavier card for the long side pieces, glue the card side pieces directly together and reinforce the corners with tape, then cover this construction with fabric, then add the bottom by gluing the flaps from the inside and from the outside the same way that Christiane does.    When you are gluing down your fabric flaps, be sure to cut away the excess at corners to reduce bulk for a neat result. At this point I still thought I would be making freestanding storage boxes like Christiane did, so I cut a piece of card for the bottom of the box, covered it in fabric and glued it inside to neaten the interior bottom.  The exterior bottom of the box stays unfinished until the very end of the project because you will be gluing your straps to it.

Make the storage compartments – Christiane makes free standing storage boxes that you can lift out.  I didn’t think I would need free standing boxes, also by this point I had realised how bendy my outer box was and that I needed to reinforce it.  Therefore I chose to make inserted boxes that are glued in place which helps add rigidity to my structure.  I again used picture framing matboard but I used a double thickness on the side facing the roller for additional strength.   Construct a box of matboard by gluing card sides to each other and to a card bottom, as per Christiane's tutorial, sizing it to fit snugly into your outer box.

I then made the opening lid by sewing around three sides of a fabric rectangle, leaving loose flaps on the open short side.  I tapered off the closed short side by sewing across the corners at an angle, then ironed on a flap of heavy fusible interfacing before turning the rectangle to the right side and pressing it flat. I then sewed across the ‘flap’ containing the interfacing to make a fold line. Into the open pocket I inserted a piece of matboard to be the stiff lid, then sewed across between the card and the loose flaps to hold the card in place. Now is the time to add a button for opening the box lid – I pierced through the card with an awl, then sewed on a button by going through the hole to a second button on the underneath.  Glue the loose flaps of the lid on either side of the back of the storage compartment, checking that the lid flap tucks in neatly.

I then cut a weirdly T-shaped piece of fabric which did three things:

1) it covered the exposed side of the compartment facing the roller, including flaps that glued under the bottom of the storage compartment and around onto the front and back sides of the storage compartment.

2) it covered the four interior sides of the box, with excess fabric at the top to glue over and down onto the outside of the three bare card sides, and a flap at the bottom to glue onto the interior base of the storage compartment.  I finished in one corner by turning under a hem on the fourth side and gluing it into the corner.

3) I snipped into the fabric in two places so that I could turn down a hem going along the underside of the lid to neatly hide the lid attachment flap.

Needless to say this took a bit of experimentation, once I had a piece that looked like it would work for one box, I cut a mirror image for the other box before doing any gluing.  I'm sorry but I didn't think of taking a picture. There’s probably a better way of finishing these compartments, perhaps by using separate fabric pieces instead of trying to do it all with one piece of fabric. I ended up with some tiny bits of exposed card on either side of my lid but it generally came out alright. Because I was trying to increase my box's structural strength, I didn't want to completely cover my compartments inside and out in fabric like Christiane did or I would just be gluing fabric to fabric.

Then I glued the storage compartments into place so that the finished fabric-covered sides faced the roller, and the lid hinges were towards the back. I pushed the compartments down firmly to glue to my outer box floor and clamped the three sides for a firm join. Once the glue dried, I cut two pieces of thinner card for the interior bottom of the storage compartments , padded them with a bit of quilt wadding, covered them in fabric and glued these into the bases of the storage compartments to finish. The main box is now finished.

Make the ties – before you sew the apron, you need to make your ties.  I sewed six ties, a pair for either side of the working aprons and a pair for the centre.  Mine are skinny bias tape sewed as a double layer using a zig zag machine stitch just because I happened to have a lot of that tape in my stash, but you could also fold over narrow fabric strips to sew c.1cm wide ties. My ties are about 12 inches long.

Make the apron – After trialling a pair of bobbins on the roller, I determined that a front working apron the width of the box, by 22cm deep, would suit my working style.  I made up a half-apron paper pattern by first tracing around the box and squaring this up to create my central opening, then measuring 22cm plus a seam allowance from the centre point of both sides and the front of the opening. I also drew a straight line continuing forward from both sides of the opening to be the sides of my front working apron.  At the 22cm plus seam allowance mark, I drew a line the width of the opening and parallel to it, which represents the front edge of the working apron. To create the curved sides, I pinned on a fabric tape measure to the corner of the opening, and drew an arc at 22cm plus seam allowance to connect  the front apron to the side point.  Finally, I drew in seam allowances within the opening.    This pattern, placed on the fold of your fabric, can be used to cut two full aprons out of fabric. I cut one in plain fabric for my interior working surface, and one in print fabric for the outside.

On the fabric that will face upwards when the pillow is in use, I used the paper pattern to chalk in stitching lines for the sides of the stiff working aprons, and stabilising lines at the centre point and quarter points of the side floppy aprons.

This is a good time to add an optional pocket to the centre of the back apron, which can hold your worked lace coming off the roller, or it could hold tools.  I added an elastic top to my pocket and stitched it on by machine.

To pad the front and back working aprons, I cut two rectangles of quilt wadding (I used Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 wadding which is denser than polyester wadding) and pinned them in place onto the wrong side of the fabric that would be facing up when I use the pillow, over the areas of the front and back working aprons (so that once stitched and turned through, the wadding seam allowance is going to face away from the working area). The wadding rectangles need to be large enough that they will be caught by both the outer seam of the apron and by the stitching you're going to do on either side of the front/back aprons. The wadding should also protrude jninto the opening by about an inch and a half  (we'll tuck this excess in later).   Pin on your ties so that they will be caught by the outer seam (the majority of the tie facing inside, just the tip poking out past the seam), locating two pairs just inside your apron side chalked lines and the third pair at the centre point of the front and back aprons. Apologies but at this point I was going full steam and forgot to take  photos! I'm trying to describe with words instead.

Then with the two fabric aprons rights sides together and the wadding pinned on one side, I stitched all around the circumference of the apron, catching the edges of the two pieces of wadding in the outer seam and reinforcing my stitching when I came to each tie.  Turn the apron to the right side and poke out the seam, pressing flat.  Also turn in the seam allowances around the central opening and press these so they stay inside - you will need to clip diagonally into each corner of the opening so that you can tuck in the seam allowance.

 Check your opening by laying it on top of  your box to make sure the opening is a good fit around the box, not too small and not too loose. Adjust if necessary Pin the two apron layers together so they don't shift while you are stitching the pocket lines., ensuring the wadding is pinned in place where it will be caught by the stitching lines on either side of the working aprons.  Top stitch close to the seam on the floppy curved sides of the apron only (not in the pocket areas where you will be inserting card). Stitch on the chalked lines on either side of the front and back aprons to create the pocket for your card pieces, catching the wadding in each seam. Afterwards I turned out the side seams through the gap in the side of the opening and trimmed the wadding within a quarter inch of the side stitching to reduce bulk but I left the full wadding seam allowance at the outer circumference seam so it will protect the edge of the card. Don't trim the wadding extending for an inch and a half out of the pocket into the opening, we need this later. I also stitched the chalked lines for the side centre line, and the quadrant lines, but I stopped these lines about an inch from the opening to allow for finessing when it came time to join the apron to the box.

 I used heavy card from the lid and base of an office box file for the front and back aprons, and cut two pieces 22cm deep by a width slightly less than my box width (the card needs to be slightly narrower so you can slide it in to the pocket you’ve sewn).  Trial fit the card and check the apron again on your box to make sure it fits and you are happy. Make sure the wadding seam allowance at the bottom of the pocket is wrapping around the edge of the card  to the outside of the pocket and not bunching up. 

Take out the card pieces while you work on the sides.  I pressed my quadrant lines to create the envelope flaps that will tuck inside when the pillow is folded up.  Then I stitched close to the fold from the outside edge to within a few inches of the opening to create a permanent fold on all four quadrant lines.  Then I stitched half a metal snap to the front and back envelope flaps where they face each other on one side, close to the top/outer edge.  So when I am closing up the pillow I can tuck these flaps in and snap them to each other to hold them in place, then repeat on the other side. Finally I stitched a short tuck at the centre side point top and stitched a small metal hoop (actually a knitting stitch marker) to the top of both centre side lines, through which I can thread one of the side ties when I am closing up the pillow so that the side pieces will be held up tightly and be closed in.

If you are happy with everything and with the fit, re-insert your card pieces into the front and back apron pockets, making sure the wadding seam allowance at the bottom is wrapping neatly to the outside of the pocket.  Carefully open the top of the pocket at the opening and apply glue to the outside of the card piece (by 'outside' I mean the side of the card that is NOT the bobbin working surface), just in the area where the excess wadding that was protruding into your opening will be folded inwards and tucked down onto the card.  Tuck in the excess wadding and press it into the glue., so it is wrapped over the top edge of your card and the wadding is pulled smoothly around the card.  This creates a smooth working surface because the wadding is held at the bottom of the pocket by the seam, and at the top by glue and can't wrinkle or work loose, and the seam allowances are on the underneath..

Once the glue dries, you are ready to close the opening seam by stitching a small neat overcast or ladder stitch all around the opening, keeping your seam allowances tucked in.  If there is any excess fabric, try to bunch this neatly into a corner to keep your working area smooth but there shouldn’t be very much if you’ve  done the above steps accurately. You may also want to stitch a length of ribbon into the  front seam, which will assist in lifting out the roller later.

Attach the apron to the box.  Place the apron over the box so that the finished opening is sitting just on top of and slightly to the outside of the outer wall of your box. Pin the corners and the middle of each side to hold in place.  Using heavier thread such as quilting thread, stitch the apron to the box by pushing your needle through the edge of the apron and then picking up some box fabric from the top of the box wall to make a neat small overcast stitch.  For security, I tied a knot with my working thread every few inches so that if a thread breaks in future, it would only affect one area.  I also stitched through the ribbon again  when I came to it for extra strength.

You’re almost finished!  You should now be able to tuck in and snap your flaps, close your pillow sides and tie them at the top and admire your almost finished construction.

Make and attach the handles.  I made my handles to finish at 1.5 inches wide. I cut two long strips of fabric 4.5 inches wide to my desired length plus four inches. I cut two strips of heavy fusible interfacing 1.5 inches wide and the length of my handles less four inches and fused this down the centre of my fabric, leaving two inches un-reinforced at either end.  I pressed down a hem on one side of my fabric, then pressed both fabric sides over onto the interfacing so that the hem hid the raw edges, then I top stitched down the edge of the  hem to secure the layers.  I further topstitched about a quarter inch in from both sides of the two handles.

 I then glued the two inch non-interfaced sections at either end of the handles onto the bottom of my box, at equal distances from either side, and ensuring I didn’t twist the handle.  Once that glue had set, I then applied glue to the inside of the handle until I could glue the handle up the side of the box and all the way up the working apron to within a quarter inch of the top, keeping the handle parallel to the edge, and held them with clamps at the top until the glue dried.  The final step was to reinforce the handle by machine stitching along the edge of the apron catching in each handle. I also hand stitched on either side of the handle near the seam between the box and the apron for added security.

Finish the bottom of the box. Cut some matboard for the bottom of the box, cover this with fabric and glue it on to neaten the bottom and hide your handles. Hold it in place with masking tape while the glue dries.

You’re done!  You might be inspired by the examples online to make a matching pincushion that will fit into your storage compartment, or perhaps a custom cover cloth to match your pillow.

I haven't been using my pillow for very long yet but I'm really pleased with how it's turned out. I've moved the Bucks Point edging onto the new pillow and I'm working to get more pins in.  I'm pleased to find that the roller is holding the pins well against tension, and I feel like I have enough room to work and that my apron is at a good angle.  I can prop bobbins temporarily on the storage box lid or move the ones I'm not going to use for a while right onto the back apron.  I've placed a cover cloth over the working surface and when I'm done, I put all the bobbins onto stitch holders then wrap the cover cloth around them before fastening the bag. I've made a pincushion that fits in one storage compartment, and my tools (pusher, lifter etc.) fit into the other compartment - so far, so good!

I hope the above explanation isn't too confusing and you can understand my process.  If it helps you make your own version,  I’d love to hear how you got on and see pictures. Good luck and happy lacemaking!