AWE Knock-off pillow

This post could also be title "The Post in Which I Use a Crazy Amount of Pictures and Lots of Words Just for a Pillow." But that seemed a little long.

I love it when my At West End catalog arrives. Do you get this one? You should. I love this Paris pillow:

And it's a great price, but my hang up is that although I'd love to visit Paris, I've never been. And while I find great inspiration in all things french, I'm not all that french-crazed. I just couldn't feel connected to the Paris pillow.

I started a bit of a travel theme in our living room awhile back. I got tired of only having my own artwork on the walls, and I wanted an affordable change. I love great graphic design and vintage ads are a great source.

So I went to All Posters and searched for vintage travel posters, and I was looking for ones that had orange in them since that was my main accent color. But there were too many great ones, so I further narrowed myself down to U.S. Travel.

So, a latitude and longitude pillow would fit right in. I settled on Boston. It's where Mateo and I began our married life.

I had some muslin, but I wanted a brighter color. So I bought some fabric dye.

And started dying the fabric.

I'll be honest, I didn't completely follow the directions. I didn't have an hour to dedicate to the process, and it came out fine. Disregard the directions at your own risk.

So, then I had to convince myself to actually get out my sewing machine. We haven't been friends lately. However, it is well protected.

I often have a sniper keeping watch when I sew. Life with little boys. ;)

I had a pillow form I was working with, so I just sewed it to the proper dimensions. Turned it right sides out.

On the computer I looked up the latitude and longitude for Boston and typed up my whole image. Then I had to mirror image it, and I printed it on iron transfer paper.

I considered painting it, but I thought this would give it a much cleaner look. So, I followed the instruction to use the transfer.

I didn't heat the edges enough, so I laid the transfer paper back down and pressed again with the iron.

Stuffed my pillow inside, sewed up the side by hand and I have my Boston pillow.

I love it. It fits right into my scheme, and it means something to us.

This post may be linked at the following parties (for their Blog Buttons see my Link Love page): (M) Mad Skills , C.R.A.F.T., Amaze Me Monday, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Singing Three Birds,  Masterpiece Mondays, Making the World Cuter, Sarahndipities, A Little Birdie Told Me (T) Stories of A to Z, The Blackberry Vine, How To's Day , Type A, Amaze Me August, Ten Buck Tuesday, Handmade Tuesdays, Anything Related, Tuesday's Treasures, Strictly Homemade, Show Me What Ya Got, Time to Shine, Show Off Your Crafty Side (W) Wow Me,  Workshop Wednesday, Whassup Wednesday, Blue Cricket Design, Look What I Made, What I Whipped Up, The Trendy Treehouse, Wicked Awesome Wednesday , Good Life Wednesday, Inspiring Creativity, Sweet Peas & Bumblebees (TH) Beyond the Picket Fence  Creative Juice, Somewhat Simple, Thrifty 101 , Smilemonsters , Everything But the Kitchen Sink, Shabby Chic Cottage, Thrifty Thursdays, House of Hepworth's, Thrilling Thursday, (F) Fingerprints on the Fridge, Furniture Feature Friday, SevenThirtyThree , Lovely Crafty Weekend , Simply Designing, Creative Corner, Tickled Pink 504 Main, Inspiration Friday at The Picket Fence, Friday Flair, Remodelaholic, For the Kids Fridays, Frugal Friday, Craft Goodies, I'm Lovin' It, Flaunt It Fridays (Sat) Tatertots and Jello , Anything Goes (Sun) Creative Blog & Hop, Sundae Scoop

Goats Milk...Pillow

First, I need to shout out to my new followers. Welcome aboard! Normally I'd like to send a nice little welcome email to let you know I care, but Blogger is being obnoxious again. Every time I try to send you a message, Blogger tries to make me follow my own blog. What? I almost accidentally clicked the button too. I'm that kind of dork. So, welcome!

I {heart} feed sack pillows, chair covers, etc. I especially heart the ones that are coffee or flour sacks. So that was the inspiration to use up these fabulous little soap sacks I'd been saving from Goat Milk Stuff. Not getting perked at all to say this: the soap and bath bombs are ah-maze-ing! And the soaps all come in these little bags.

So I ripped the seams.

And then sewed them together.

I had to add some fabric to make it fit the size pillow I had (I already had a pillow form that needed a new cover).

Sewed it all together and voila! a new feed-sack inspired pillow.

I have it in my living room for now. I may move it to our bedroom though. I really like it in the living room, but I don't necessary want light colored pillows because of the kids. The kids are the reason I need to replace my throw pillows in the first place.

And I already have one white and yellow pillow that worries me. That one was made from a placemat. See this post for how to to that. 

This post may be linked at the following parties (for their Blog Buttons see my Link Love page): (M) Mad Skills , C.R.A.F.T., Amaze Me Monday, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Singing Three Birds,  Masterpiece Mondays, Making the World Cuter, Sarahndipities, A Little Birdie Told Me (T) Stories of A to Z, The Blackberry Vine, How To's Day , Type A, Amaze Me August, Ten Buck Tuesday, Handmade Tuesdays, Anything Related, Tuesday's Treasures, Strictly Homemade, Show Me What Ya Got, Time to Shine, Show Off Your Crafty Side (W) Whassup Wednesday, Blue Cricket Design, Look What I Made, What I Whipped Up, The Trendy Treehouse, Wicked Awesome Wednesday , Good Life Wednesday, Inspiring Creativity, (TH) Beyond the Picket Fence  Creative Juice, Somewhat Simple, Thrifty 101 , Smilemonsters , Everything But the Kitchen Sink, Shabby Chic Cottage, Thrifty Thursdays, House of Hepworth's, Thrilling Thursday, (F) Fingerprints on the Fridge, Furniture Feature Friday, SevenThirtyThree , Lovely Crafty Weekend , Simply Designing, Creative Corner, Tickled Pink 504 Main, Inspiration Friday at The Picket Fence, Friday Flair, Remodelaholic, For the Kids Fridays, Frugal Friday, Craft Goodies, I'm Lovin' It, Flaunt It Fridays (Sat) Tatertots and Jello , Anything Goes (Sun) Creative Blog & Hop, Sundae Scoop

I have a little pillow

I want new pillows to freshen up my living room. I've haven't found all the fabric I really want yet. 

Here's what I have at the moment. I still love the colors, and in fact, my curtains are orange, so I will keep the theme, but add some yellow, maybe a little sky blue and ditch the brown.

The whole base of my room is pretty neutral, so I don't need neutral colors in my pillows. I haven't had a lot of luck finding anything I like though. 

A few weeks ago I did find this placemat at Target. It was the last one. (How do you stock so there is only one placemat left? Or, conversely, who bought an odd number? But I digress.)

Honestly, I was torn. I loved the look, but I have two boys who will turn this into some kind of weapon or shield and I wasn't sure it would hold up. Here's a close up:

I don't have a "hands off" living space. If it's out, it has to stand up to the boys. Period. It's the only way I'd be able to maintain sanity. And if you only have girls, you can't fully appreciate this issue. Boys in combo are whole different beast.

Where was I? Oh, yes. Pillows. I decided for $2, and a little work, it was worth the risk that it may be destroyed in less than a month. I like to live on the edge.

So, first I had to rip out the seam on one short side. 

Once I opened it up, I now have the material for the front and back already. (If I wanted a different back, I would have just ripped the seams all the way around.) 

My old pillow was almost the right size, so I unzipped it from it's old cover and shoved it in the new placemat-turned-pillow fabric. 

Now, my pillow was not quite as long, but it was also a little wide. But that's okay. The pillow was getting flat, so by stuffing it in a slightly smaller sleeve of fabric, it makes the pillow firmer without needed to open the pillow form and restuff. Does that make sense?

I folded down the little bit of excess (I could have cut it, but there wasn't that much so I didn't bother), pinned it, and sewed it with a whip stitch. Well, actually, I went and discovered I had no white thread. Who runs out of white thread?! Apparently me. So, I had to go to the store and then sew it up. 

I will look lovely for however long it lasts.(That yellow stripped pillow was in another room, I just moved it to the living room.)

Linking to:
Mad In Crafts