Pillows are such an easy way to transform a room from season to season and holiday to holiday. Just tuck the old away and replace with a fresh pillow or pillow cover and your room suddenly looks fresh and new. Finished pillows are pretty expensive and they are actually so easy to make. You can start with a blank canvas or you can choose a printed fabric panel or other design to help get things started. A few things to think about when making a pillow for your sofa, bedroom or your children’s beds is how they will be used. Many DIY pillows are not really designed to be washed, but they can be if you plan right. Making them washable is easy when you use Tattered Angels Paints (all paints except the Mists are great for this), iron-ons, stamps with permanent ink, fabric paints, etc. You might want to test a piece of canvas or burlap first just to make sure it washes they way you would like it to. Washing will also take the sizing out of the canvas, so your pillow will have a much softer, vintage look and feel.
There is no need to wash your pillow before decorating it, but you may choose to do so to start with a washed, rustic look. If you are planning to use the pillow for decorative purposes, then the sky is the limit for decorating. Canvas and Burlap are great surfaces to create on and works as well or even better with most craft mediums and supplies. Stickers are about the only thing you will want to stay away from when making your pillow. For those who love to create layouts, make cards and other paper craft projects, consider the pillow surface a little bigger than you are used to, but follow many of the same style ideas and techniques you love to do when making your pillow and then show it off for the world to see.
Canvas Corp offers a wide range of Pillows and home decor blanks in various sizes and shapes and in both canvas and burlap. Your pillows can be simple or very detailed, they can be a solid color, monogrammed, screen printed, ombre, simple stenciled or stamped, hand-painted, sewn, stitched, glued, inked, distressed, just the way you like them. Now you can create pillows that are your style, your way.
Barb Housner gets us ready for Easter with a burlap bunny pillow she created. Barb walks you through how to make a pillow from start to finish or you can choose one of the Canvas Corp pillow forms that are ready to go. The pillows open in the back making it so easy to cover an existing pillow or fill with your favorite pillow form.
Barb created this little goodie with a plan to give it to her niece as a hostess gift. Her niece always hosts Easter dinner and we are pretty sure she will love this special handmade pillow.
Materials Used:
- Canvas Corp 12 x 12 Burlap Sheet – Natural Burlap
- Canvas Corp Canvas Fabric – 30″ x 36″
- Tattered Angels Baseboard Mist Paint – Gerber
- Heat N Bond Lite by Thermo Web
- Button and thread from supplies
- Fiberfill
Tools Used: Silhouette Cameo, Sewing Machine, Iron, Glue Gun
The first step is to decide on the finished size of your pillow. This will determine how big you wish to make your bunny image. I knew I wanted my pillow to be approximately 10 inches square and I wanted to have approximately one inch flange around the pillow. I found an image in my Silhouette Library and sized my bunny to fit the approximate size of my pillow. I cut a pattern and then traced the pattern on Heat N Bond Lite by Thermo Web and cut it out. I adhered the traced pattern to the burlap and cut it out.
Using the burlap bunny, I did the calculations for my pillow. The bunny is approximately 7.5 inches tall and 5 inches wide. I added 5 inches to these measurement (one inch of each side of the design (2), 1 inch flange (2), ½ inch seam allowance (1). The width of the piece of canvas for the pillow is 10 inches. I decided to make my pillow front and back one piece with a flap opening in the back where your pillow form can be inserted. For the front of the pillow you have 7.5 plus 5 inches. You then need to add on the extra length you need to finish the back of the pillow. I cut my piece of canvas 5 inches x approximately 30 inches. I prefer to have extra fabric when I am doing an overlap closing on the back of my pillow.
Peel paper backing off your burlap bunny. Adhere to your canvas. With your sewing machine straight stitched around the bunny. Make your pillow, press and stitch around the pillow top approximately 1 inch from the outside edge to make your flange. Adhering the burlap bunny to the canvas will hold it in place and give it a finished look that will last longer when handled, moved and leaned upon.
Cut three circles from canvas fabric. Mist with Tattered Angels Baseboard Mist Paint – Gerber. Tattered Angels mists are great for tinting fabric, keep in mind they are not a fabric paint, but they are great on fabric, so if you plan to wash your creation you might want to choose a fabric paint, but we love the rich, deep color of the most. Each circle will be a little smaller than the other. Sew a button in the center of your stacked circles. Choose a vintage button from a button jar or you can purchase one.
Attach to your bunny for a tail. I used a glue gun to attach the tail or you can use a fabric glue that will hold the tail in place.
Here is a picture of the back of the pillow showing the overlap closing. Barb shows us how she sewed her pillow with the opening, which is very similar to the Canvas Corp pillows. The Canvas Corp pillows do not have this 1″ boarder around them, which is a nice touch. So you have the choice to make your own pillow, you size and your style or make it simple and purchase one or more pillows and make a fleet of seasonal pillows that will fill your sofa, bed or brighten up a guest bedroom.
To see more of Barb’s work you can visit her blog Paper Therapy Ponderings, Mixed Media Mojo or follow her on Instagram.
Happy Creating!!!
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