We love seeing all the clever ways people decorate our blank canvas pillowcases, and these pillows by Marie Pickles are no exception! She shows us two creative ways to decorate some pillows for your own home decor, to give as gifts, or to throw on your bed or couch.
This first cushion that Marie decorates is so festive, as she decorated it to look like a gift. This would be a fabulous throw pillow for Christmas and the holidays! All you need is a little burlap and some other basic tools.
Present Cushion
When I received my box of samples from CCB the first thing that caught my eye was the rich luscious red burlap, I then came across a square canvas cushion cover from CC and as they say the rest is history. From the beginning I knew what I wanted to do with these products. A plump cushion that looked like a present…..
Materials needed for this project:
Cushion Filler
Canvas Corp 14″ square canvas cover
Canvas Corp Burlap – Red
Canvas Corp Canvas Fringing
Matching Threads
Fabric Glue
Sewing Machine
Needle
Pins – straight and quilting length
Scissors
measuring tape or ruler
Choose your fabric and cushion size and cut a few strips of fabric to make your ‘bows’. I cut mine 4″ wide by 16″ long and my cushion was 14″. This gave me sufficient fabric to fold and secure the strips and ensure there were no fraying threads . These strips are to be sewn onto the cushion cover.
Once you have folded the short end of the strip over, place a line of glue along it and press the ends tight, remove any stray threads and pin until the glued fabric has dried. These strips then need to be placed across the cushion cover to form a cross shape. Pin these into place and sew carefully onto the cover
Follow step 2 until you have all four ends folded, glued and sewed into place on the cushion cover. The next step is to fray the edges of the fabric ‘bow’. Now using a matching thread, catch the centre of the bow to pinch it ready for finishing the bow.
Pinch the centre of both strips of fabric and secure with a few stitches, it should now look like a parcel with a bow tied around it.
Pop the filler into the cushion and push the corners well into place, if you need you may wish to use some additional toy stuffing in the corners to make them more full and pointed. Use the canvas fringe and wrap it around the centre of the bow in an x. Using a matching thread catch the fringe to hold it secure. Fold the edge of the fringe under to ensure it does not fray.
This should finish your present cushion, it looks real cute and that red burlap is so very reminiscent of Christmas. Hope you enjoy.
How cute is that present pillow!
Now, for this next pillow, Marie used some Celtic inspiration. Great for someone with a Celtic heritage, or even for spring with that bright green cord!
CELTIC CUSHION
I love bright colours, textures and a little bit of history. When I was browsing through my designer box I kept lifting one item and running it through my fingers, it was very simple, it was a hank of hemp rope, bright avocado. I teamed it up with a circular cushion cover and had a little browse on the internet. I was thinking celtic symbols. This is a simple project, relaxing and satisfying. – says Marie.
Marie used the following:
Canvas Corp Hemp Rope Advocado
Canvas Corp Canvas Circular Cushion Cover
Black embroidery floss from my stash
needle
scissors
pencil
Have a browse and settle on a design, adapt it so it is easily achievable and lightly draw the design onto you fabric. A word of caution, be careful of what you draw with, it needs to be removable or light enough that it won’t be seen when you have finished. Once you have the basic shape start to lay the help rope over the first line of your pattern. I started with a double loop of rope, I used multi strand embroidery floss and separated that into 3 strands. Using a knot on the end of the floss, I brought it up from the underside of the work and laid the first stitches across the rope.
Working in stages I continued to lay the loops of rope inside the design and pegged them down with little stitches until the first circle was filled.
Couching is an embroidery stitch; it can be seen in many pieces of work dating back to the middle ages. It is a thread laid on top of fabric with another thread of the same (or different ) used to stitch the primary thread to the work Working carefully the lines of rope are laid down, these are pegged in place with the couching stitch. I have tried to keep to a general pattern with the couching stitches although this is not necessarily a requirement. The pattern is followed within the circles and then on to the next circle.
The general shape that I used is based on a traditional celtic form called a triskelion which has 3 spiral shapes, this is my interpretation and I liked the shape! When the rope needed joined I slipped the new strand under the existing strand and ensured that a couching stitch was placed over the join. As lines were followed there was a space left in the work and this was filled using more rope and working into the centre until all white space was filled.
As a final check I tracked back over the work and using a fresh needle and floss filled any spaces left in the couching stitches.
This project was simple and very satisfying. I can be adapted to suit large and small projects or simple to add to another ongoing project. It is adaptable and by changing the threads used to lay down and those used to couch many different variations can be achieved.
These two pillows are so creative! We love how Marie showed off how versatile they are. We have a number of different sizes of pillow blanks in the store. Here, Marie used a square and circle one, but we also have rectangles and a variety of larger and smaller sizes! The canvas is also quite thick and durable, which makes applying paint for Glimmer Mist possible, too!
Thanks for stopping by! We hope you have been inspired by these fun pillows. If you would like to see more of Marie’s work, please visit her BLOG.
Happy Crafting!
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