Christmas Pillows!

This week I worked on some pillows. I wanted to try some stenciled pillows and these are the result. I got stencils on a sale and used acrylic paints. I mixed the paint with fabric medium to make them waterproof and it also keeps them from being too stiff.

I made the pillows to fit the size of the stencils, so you can do them in any size that you want. After I stenciled them, I put them in the dryer for 25 minutes and heat set them. Then I sprayed the lighter pillows with walnut spray. For those I used a stark white fabric and you can see it ages it nicely. The snowflakes were done on coffee stained fabric from moda. With the snowflakes, I added a little sparkle paint, but it doesn't show in the photo.

Once they were dry, I cut them to size and added a piece of batting to each side and sewed them, right sides together. I use the batting so when I fill them, the balsam sits in between the batting. You can leave an opening at the bottom for turning, or you can make a slit on the backside. I used a slit and covered it, after they were stuffed.

I added the border stitching, after they were stuffed. I hide the stitches by pulling them into the edges.

I stenciled them with a stencil brush and used a smaller brush to get into the smaller areas.

The snowflakes were done with white, then a glitter paint over that, so it has a light sparkle to it. The white is not as bold in person, the camera tends to heighten paint colors.

For my backs, I sewed the slit up with a basic slip stitch and then added a penny to cover the area. My camera was acting up today and the flash wasn't working right, so the colors are way off. This is tea stained cotton ticking, a great way to finish christmas pillows. I used green on the others.