alison archives designs: Joyful Pillow

I am a fan of more "rustic" decor (a.k.a. "messy"). It lends itself to children, that's for sure.

So, when I had to come up with a project for my demonstrator Christmas swap (I tell ya, being a demo is SO much fun--you should really consider it), I thought I would stretch myself to try something new. We need to keep our costs to $5 or less. I was thinking of sewing something, so I grabbed my Jo-Ann coupon and found three pieces of fabric that worked well together for the "feeling" I was going for. I already had the notions, so my total cost was $5.42. I went over, but I also have enough fabric to make 4 more of these pillows, so I think I'm OK.

Here is the fabric:

Simple ticking in navy, some burlap and muslin.

I cut a rectangle out of the muslin (not paying attention to right angles or approximate size) and then stamped using the Larger Than Life alphabet stamp with Real Red Ink. This is a photopolymer set, so lining up the letters perfectly was a breeze. As you can see, the word isn't centered perfectly. Since I did care (I mean, it is a gift, after all), I just trimmed the right side until "joy" sat perfectly in the middle. Wing it, that's what I say.

Next, I stamped the brackets (also included in this set) in Soft Suede. The buttons are from the Nordic set, and I sewed them on with the burlap strings that came off the ends of the fabric. The bow in the corner is made with the Real Red cotton ribbon from the Holiday Catalog which I overlapped with the Venetian Crochet Trim.

I then sewed the pillow base and then overstitched this piece on the top before closing up and stuffing it. Seriously, the whole project took me about an hour from start to finish, and that was with the learning curve.