Did you ever have a project practically design itself in
your head, but you were too chicken to try it because you weren’t sure your
skills were up to the task? Yep, that’s me—most of the time. But this time, when
an idea for an appliquéd reversible pillow jumped into my head, I took the
plunge—in spite of the fact that I had NEVER even sewed a pillow before, let alone
appliquéd anything! I can be so naïve sometimes… LOL :) (Of course, it helped that I already had my
sewing machine out for another project!)
Before I hardly knew what I was doing, I had a pillow form
out, along with a quilt/blanket (that I had picked up at Goodwill solely for its
gorgeous colors/pattern combos) that I thought would make a good premade
background :) I folded the quilt over at a point that left a mostly “blank”
front panel, and a multi-patterned back. Then I cut a square out just barely
larger than the pillow form, leaving the folded edge uncut (no measuring or
tracing here—I was on a roll! At least I remembered to take a few pictures!) I
flipped the panel inside out and sewed up two of the remaining three open
sides, leaving one open to get the pillow form in.
I used white iron-on letters (that I had bought for a
different project) to form the “You Are My”… but I didn’t have anything big
enough for the “Sunshine”! Nor am I the privileged owner of a Silhouette or Cricut
machine with which I could have easily cut them out (of course, if someone has
an extra one that want to send me, I am always accepting donations!) :) So I
made the blue letters the hard way—I used my computer to create large block
letters approximately the size I wanted, and printed them out. Then I cut each
paper letter out with scissors, traced them onto another piece of fabric from
the quilt, and cut each fabric letter out individually. Not an easy task! (But,
as I was soon to discover, it was not the hardest part of this project!)
The iron-on letters were easy to adhere, but I had to figure
out how to hold the blue letters, as well as the bird, on to the pillow. I knew
I wanted to stitch them on, but I needed a way to hold them in place while I
did so. The solution: my trusty glue
gun-- “basting” the letters in place with tiny dollops of glue! (As a matter of
fact, the hot glue ended up holding much better than the iron-on lettering!) Then
it was back to the sewing machine to zig-zag stitch first around the bird, and
then the blue lettering. Unfortunately, it took me quite a bit of time—and frustration—to
get the stitch width & tension ratio right - one that kept the stitches
tight enough without constantly breaking the thread! Arghh!
Finally (after over an hour of sewing, seam-ripping, thread-cutting,
needle-rethreading, and re-sewing) I got the blue letters “stitched”. Unfortunately,
by this time, the iron-on letters were coming loose because of all the fabric
wrangling—so I had to sew them on as well (this time stitching just inside the
edge of the letter, so the stitching wasn’t as obvious)!
By this time I was QUITE sick of my sewing machine, but I
still had to figure out how to close up the open end of the pillow cover. I
considered buttons, and even a zipper (DEFINITELY beyond my skill level)—but in
the end, the easy way won out again: my trusty glue gun! I simply folded over
the open side like I was wrapping a present, and hot-glued the edges down!
Tada!
Here is what the back of the pillow looks like (I told you it was reversible!):
All in all, I am pretty happy with my spur-of-the-moment,
waaayy-above-my-skill-level project! I think the imperfections add to the
whimsical, primitive charm (at least, that’s what I keep telling myself! Just
don’t look too close…) :)
FINAL BREAKDOWN:
Pillow form: $1.00 (thrift store)
Quilt: $3.99 (thrift store)
Iron-on letters: 2 packs @ 3.99 ea + 40% off Jo-Ann Fabrics
coupon = $4.79
Doing something that
I didn’t think I could do: PRICELESS
So what are you waiting for? What project is scaring you
away? Get out there and prove that nagging doubter in your head wrong!!! :)
