“Be Mine” (and Junk) – XoXo Valentine’s Throw Pillow Tutorial

Kisses and hugs and hearts, oh my!!   Here is a quick and easy way to make an adorable Valentine’s throw pillow on a budget! Admittedly, with three boys, Valentine’s Day isn’t a really big deal in our house aside from making the class Valentine’s for the little guys (oh and, that’s a big deal because it entails getting candy back – just in time for the Christmas stocking candy to have been depleted!!).  

But Valentine’s Day sure is a great time to make some super cute and yummy treats and fun projects to help alleviate the blahs of having just taken down all of the sparkly and cheery Christmas decorations!  So here is my first Valentine’s project of the year - I know, it’s only January 7th, but you need to have these ideas in advance, right?  You can’t go starting a Valentine’s pillow on February 13th, now!

This is a fun, yet understated, pillow and is the first and more basic of at least two that I will be making this month.   I have said it before and I’ll say it again, I am a sucker for throw pillows.  They can help add an instant “theme” to a room.  Never mind that the boys cannot keep them on the furniture (or that they are often lobbed at someone’s head).  And I think it’s also fun to cover seasonal pillows so they get more use in their “down time”, like this Santa pillow I am covering today:

Simmer down now, Mr. Claus.  You’ll be back in action next December!   So I am starting with this existing 15″ pillow.

Like my “12 Days of Christmas” pillow, I am making a “sham style” / envelope cover.   I love this because the covers can easily be folded up and stored for the next year.

First, I cut my front fabric – a basic off-white cotton – in a 16″ x 16″ square.  For the back I cut TWO different sized rectangles out of the red duck cloth I had leftover from the Christmas pillow project: one is 16″ x 9″ and one is 16″ x 12″ (Note:  I had originally planned on using a 12″ pillow but then realized a little ways in that 16″ of fabric was too big so if you ARE using a 15″ pillow you may want to give yourself an extra half an inch or so and cut 17″ instead of 16″).   Not to mention, my lighter fabric was slightly too sheer to cover the pattern on the darker Santa pillow, so I ended up using TWO 16″ x 16″ squares of the off-white fabric placed together.  These projects are always a learning process so never be afraid to change up your game plan after you start!

As with all of my “envelope style” pillows, like my St. Patricks Day Pillow, you want the two back rectangles to overlap.  Now normally this is where I zig-zag stitch all the edges (especially with duck cloth) but in this case I got to painting the front first (after pinning my two pieces of off white fabric together).  We’ll get back to attaching the back pieces in a bit.

I used my new paper crafting machine (Merry Christmas from Mom & Dad!!) to cut some hearts and “Xs” and “Os” out of adhesive vinyl so I could use those as stencils.  I have shown you in the past that a fancy machine is not needed, it just saves a little time. If you don’t have one, you can print heart and letter templates and make your own stencils just like I did for all of the numbers on my “12 Days of Christmas pillow”, so don’t let that discourage you.

And then guess what I did?  I started to cut out the vinyl cut hearts and then realized just after cutting the third heart, that I should have given myself a larger border outside the cut that the machine had done {bless my little heart}.  Because painting (and staying in the lines) inside of THIS:

As opposed to THIS:

Well, it made it take a bit longer (not to mention those teensy heart borders were not easy to work with and place)!  But, again, another lesson learned as I fiddle with my new paper crafting thing-a-ma-jig.  So we press on!  Painted using red multi-purpose acrylic craft paint.

I peeled the first vinyl off immediately to make sure there was no bleeding, and there wasn’t (whew!!) so I stuck with that plan after painting each heart.

Kinda cute, huh??  I added a couple of buttons onto the smaller hearts for some whimsy!  (frankly, I just like that word and it might be my word of choice for 2013… who doesn’t need more whimsy??  I know I do.  Just sayin’. ).

You’ll notice on these smaller hearts there are some beautiful imperfections – here in “Valentine country” we like to call that “rustic”.

So once all the paint was thoroughly dried (for me it was overnight), it was time to finish assembling the pillow.

I added a zig zag border to all 4 sides of the painted fabric.

I then did the same to the red back pieces except one long side of each rectangle.  On those two long sides I did a normal double fold, one stitch hem, since that will show on the back at the opening.  I placed the painted front finished side up and then lined up the larger rectangle at the top, finished side down with the nice hem at the bottom.

Then I placed the smaller rectangle (lined up at the at the bottom), finished side down, nice hem at the top so now the rectangles are overlapping with the smaller rectangle being the third layer on top.

I pinned all of the pieces together and sewed the entire perimeter using a zig zag stitch to prevent fraying. I used a little extra caution where the two rectangles overlap since that part is thicker.  I then turned inside out .  See how the overlapped rectangles create that sham style opening?

I made sure all four corners were “poked out” then I inserted the pillow.  It was a little tight but I love a good, puffy pillow!  Next time, however, I will go with 17″ fabric lengths instead of 16″ when using a 15″ pillow just to give an extra half an inch on each side.

You see I even added an extra heart in there after I was finished!  You could do all kinds of varieties on this by using all red fabric and white paint or adding more buttons, etc.  Just have fun!

So, until next time… XOXO,

Claire  :)

 

 

 

 

Tagged as: Cricut, Hand Painted Valentine Pillow, XOXO Valentine's Throw Pillow