Pillow Evolution

I spent most of last week in Boise visiting Joelle and family. I love my visits!

I'm not very good at relaxing so we usually tackle a project or two. Recently we've painted two bedrooms, sewed a bedskirt, and made a cute modest dress for Julia.

This time, Joelle mentioned she'd like help figuring out pillows for her new family room sofa. I came across these interesting pillows and sent pictures to her - I suggested we could make simple little figures for the whole family.





Joelle liked the idea, but then showed me the work of a friend of a friend who does crazy fun family paintings - funkitup, on Etsy.



Hmmm - maybe we could make the pillows a little fancier. I made a sketch and a mock up out of paper and Joelle liked it.





So off we went to the fabric store for the fun part - finding just the right colors and fabrics.

Here's our step by step process:

Sketch the figures and then outline with black sharpie.



Identify fabrics for each piece of the figures, then trace the pieces, grouped together by fabric, onto the paper side of an iron on adhesive like heat 'n bond.





Cut around each group of pieces (not the individual pieces - the fabric group) and iron them onto the back of their fabrics. (Follow instructions that come with the adhesive.) Next cut out each piece and peal off the paper backing. Lay the pieces out on the pillow top and iron them until they fuse.

I used my original pattern to figure out placement.







Finish the edges of each piece with a machine zig zag or by hand embroidery. We chose hand - so quite a few hours were spent sitting, chatting, and sewing.

Joelle learned the lost art of needle work. It was fun!



Finish with embellishments. We added ribbons, trims, and buttons to personalize the clothing and to represent the family pets - dog, hamster, bird, and frogs.





Sew the pillow top to the pillow back. We used a simple overlapping envelope type back and used cording to edge the pillows. Here's a pillow making 101 tutorial giving the basics.

Here's our finished product:

Mom and Dad


and the kiddies



Look who loves the new pillows