Lucille's

LITTLE PILLOWS.......

you can make all by yourself

 Clever You!

Thought I would show you a few ideas for some easy little pillows you can make to pretty up a corner or give for a little gift.

These pink and white woollies in this pic were made from a $2.00 vintage blanket.  I used the striped and overcast edge as one end of my pillow and folded it over right sides together, sewed the one side and end together on the machine, turned inside out, stuffed, then stitched the striped ends together with pink wool on the outside. Buttons and trims were added afterward.

The puppy pillow above was just a vintage tea towel sewn up.

The rose, and bird pillows were images printed on white cotton fabric using my computer.

 Seriously!

 If you haven’t discovered the site www.graphicfairy.com  then you really must. There are thousands of wonderful vintage images on every subject imaginable.

 Search in the category tab and pick a topic. New images are added daily and are seasonal. Copy and save your image and then bring it up in Word so you can resize it and center it. If you want to make sure it will be right, then print it on paper first.

You can only make a pillow the size of an 8x11 piece of paper (unless you print a graphic on fabric that size and then use another fabric to border it to make it bigger.)

 The technique is to spray a piece of 8x11 paper or preferably card stock with spray adhesive, then press on a piece of fabric…..use white or coloured or even a tone on tone like damask or even drop cloth canvas for a bit more rustic look. 

Make sure you trim your fabric around the edges to the size of your card stock and do not leave any threads loose. Feed your fabric-covered paper into your printer whichever way will have the image print on the fabric side. Hit print and watch the image transfer to your fabric. Peel off and make your pillow.

 (If you somehow manage to wreck your printer, I have left the country!!!However, I have done this a hundred times with no ill effects.)

For this pillow I simply printed a picture of the boys on a fabric piece. I have  made many of these for little gifts......often using a friend's grandchlid's picture. I have also made larger pillows by printing 4 separate pictures sized to be an 18" pillow when sewn together.

 These pillows with four sections were made with scraps from my sewing stash and embellished with bits of trim and buttons I had on hand. I sewed the four different patterns together (and yes I agonized over each combination) and sewed on the trims then sewed on the backing fabric which was one piece the size of the four sewn together. (It matched one of the four patterns.)

I have also used new tea towels with a pattern I liked like this one for the cabin.

 and also napkins or vintage pillowcases.

This white rose one I made from yardgoods on sale.(I'm not that clever. It comes on the bolt just ike this)

 You could also use part of a plaid shirt (use the part with the front buttoned up and the pocket) or the backside of a pair of jeans (pockets) for a teen’s room.

These next two are made from vintage bark cloth fabric.

This one is from taffeta saved from my fall wedding tablecloths.

And then a scrap of chenille.

I love to change my pillows around on a whim, so sometimes I make pillow coverings with a zipper or split back so I can simply put them over existing pillows and not have to buy and store extra pillow forms.

Have fun creating!