The Beating Hearth: Sometimes it just works out....perfectly!

Monday, November 5, 2012

Sometimes it just works out....perfectly!

In an effort to make some Thanksgiving pillows for my house this season...I had to dig deep. I didn't know what I wanted, except that I wanted to use buttons somewhere on it. I had a sort of vague idea that the pile of blue buttons I had could be the sky. That's the beginning...

I made a quick sketch...and from that sketch it all came together. I decided to go with iron on transfer for ease of sewing. Quick and painless. I also knew that I wanted to use burlap and some faux leather...aka pleather....okay...now we've actually got something...put it all together...

1. Cut burlap into rough shape of hay bale.

2. Cut all your shapes using iron on transfer. With the pleather, I found that I could use the iron on transfer at the beginning, so on the back of the fabric. But, hear me now. Do not try and iron the pleather onto your fabric...you risk messing the heck out of your iron. And it won't stick. I may have tried. But, the reason I tell you to do it on the back of your pleather, is so you can cut out the shape perfect!

3. See, just pin it down. Then iron around the pleather.

4. Arrange your tail feathers as you like. Do this on your ironing board so you don't have to juggle this over to the ironing board and then have to reassemble them.

5. Iron everything down...making sure to be cautious of the pleather then stitch around everything with your sewing machine.

6. Aaaaahhhh!!! Stitch on button eyes. If you're like me, you will stab them with pins to know approximately where you would like them placed. Disturbing, I know.

7. Sew on a 1.25" teal border. Around that stitch a large white border...to fit the size of your pillow of course. I have 20 x 20 inch pillows...so my finished front was 22 x 22 inches.

8. I gave mine some much needed wheat stalks on either side to balance out the button heavy top. And did little cross stitch embroidered stalks. Back stitched the turkey legs on with orange.

9. Sew on buttons til your heart's content. This, captain obvious, is the back of my piece. I wanted to show you that I individually sewed on each button. I did this for a reason...I find that sometimes when you stretch thread from one spot to another, it tugs and pulls the fabric and then you have a crease or a divot...or other unpleasantries. So, stitch on a button, tie it off and snip your thread. Begin again.

10. The back. I used my Pocket Pillow tutorial and it worked very well thank you very much. Cute backside fabric, huh?

Make two. Or as many as you want. So cute. I have to say that I am extremely pleased with how this turned out. Sometimes you think something in your brain...and you work on it...and what was in your mind definitely wasn't what turned out in real life. This case though...it really turned out so cute. I am in love. My vision brought to reality.

Thanks for reading! Oh, and check out my homey Danni over at Silo Hill Farm, she's helping out with a contest over at the Crafty Cornucopia. This week it's all about...buttons. That's right. I think next week is all about burlap. Clearly I can enter twice...maybe..I will have to read the rules again. Maybe I'll just have Danni tell me if I can enter one project twice....stay tuned. Hope you like my button Thanksgiving pillow. I am thrilled with it.

Thanks for reading!!

3 Goals for this month are:

1. Finish Christmas wall hanging. Won't get to Thanksgiving one this year...and that's okay.

2. Enjoy more time with my family. Tis the Season after all

3. Finish binding on Swoon quilt

Heather

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