Turning a Bargello Purse into a Pillow

Updated November 10, 2023.
How you would turn my Missoni purse pattern into a pillow. If you look at the pattern as charted, you see there is a line of six stitches on one step, followed by three stitches where it moves up or down. A repeat of the pattern goes from the middle of one long step to the middle of the next step that is on the same level.

Missoni patterns, several of which are pictured here make great candidates for creating your own Bargello pattern as well.

You can easily extend any Bargello pattern as long as it repeats.

Here’s how:

First, find a pattern where the chart (or picture) has a repeat, so you know how the pattern continues. Most Bargello patterns have repeats, but if you are taking another Bargello-like pattern, it might not. You can check this by using some graph paper and charting the pattern.

If it doesn’t repeat you can still do it as Bargello and extend it by taking some of the pattern and adding it onto itself at either end. I do this on graph paper first to be sure it looks good.

Now that you have a pattern, figure out the color sequence you want. In this case, you could use the sequence on the purse or use a picture of another Missoni piece. Write it down, so you have it when you are looking for threads. Sometimes I even print the picture as a reference.

Mark the edges of your pillow on your canvas and find the center and mark it.

Start stitching at the center with the center stitch of the pattern. Stitch to one side, then the other.

Follow the color sequence you wrote down to stitch the other rows.

Missoni patterns are pretty good for this because as clothing or fabric, they do repeat. If the pattern doesn’t it’s harder to extend, since you have to make assumptions about what it will do.