Throw Pillow Tutorial

I have been really wanting to make our house more like a home and what better way than throw pillows? Buying them as-is from the store is fine, but I decided to take the more personal approach.

Materials:

Fabric- I used two 20"x20" napkins I got on sale at Target for $7, plus I have enough to make another pillow

Throw pillow or stuffing- I found a new Pottery Barn one at Goodwill for $6

Paint- I use the Martha Stewart Paint from Michael's Craft Store

Tintable Fabric Medium- again, Martha Stewart

Paint Brushes

Any stencils you want- mine are the Martha Stewart letters from Michael's

Needle, Thread, Scissors, Tape

Step One:

After washing your fabric, lay one piece flat. Get all your stencils ready. On a small plate or bowl mix two parts paint to one part fabric medium. The fabric medium makes any acrylic paint into fabric paint. I highly recommend the Martha Stewart brand because the paint works on everything.

On the piece of fabric start laying out your stencils. Mine is writing and the finished project will say "The Little's est 2012", but of course yours can be anything.
I did my letters in sets of three because I needed multiple letters multiple times. Plus, it made it easier to paint and line up. I taped my individual letters together so that they were also lined up better.

Step Two:
Let the paint dry. For my bird in the middle I used a stamp. Just paint the color on and carefully put it down. The paint bottle says to let it dry an hour, but I did mine shorter because after 30 minutes it felt dry to me.

Step Three:
Place the fabric so the wrong sides are facing out. Using the napkins made hand stitching this really easy. Just stay along the edge there and your fine. But of course, using a sewing machine is just fine.
Sew all the way around leaving most of one side not sewn up.
Once you have all but one side sewn, flip the case so they're can see the right side, or the part with your stenciling on it.

Step Four:
Insert the old pillow into the new case you've made. Fold the edges in on the part that isn't sewn closed yet. With it like that, loop stitch it closed. The should no longer be any open spaces left on the pillow.

Now, your pillow is all done :) Enjoy it! Mine goes perfectly with my new comforter that I got at Target today for $30.

So, I'm pretty much in love with my room. The lights behind the bed were easy, you just need some small Christmas lights, a sheer curtain, and then a curtain rod. Just put the lights up in strips that run the length of the bed. And the pillow looks great too :)

Here are some other pillows I stenciled. These pillows I found at Ross for $7. The stencil was at Michaels and I used the same paint.

So there you have it... An easy way to spice up and customize throw pillows. If you make some, send me the pictures :) until next time, enjoy the crafting. I am off to cook some dinner and do the laundry.