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By Kristin
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Recently I decided to make some pillows as a gift for my mom. But these weren't just any pillows. Nope- no simple, fabric-covered pillows here. I'm talking handmade burlap and plaid slipcovers with images meaningful to my mom: one pillow had a moose and one had a "G" on it (her last name starts with g). Enter Microsoft Word, Google Images, Adobe InDesign, contact paper, and a steady hand with an exacto knife.
When following the directions below, there are basically three major steps to it: making a stencil, stenciling the fabric, and assembling the slip covers. Now hang onto your hats cause here we go!
1. Get the pillows
I wanted to make slipcovers for the pillows so that my mom could easily wash them. Therefore, I could get whatever pillows I wanted (and whatever ones were the cheapest) since they would be covered up by the fabric. I found these light green pillows for $2 each. Not exactly my style (or my mom's) but again, looks didn't matter.
2. Pick out slipcover fabric
I decided that I wanted burlap to be the front of the slipcover with stencil on it. For anyone that has ever worked with burlap, part of the appeal is the texture. However, this texture also means that you can see right through the fabric. To combat this peek-a-boo characteristic, I decided to line the inside of the burlap with plain white cotton that I already had on hand. Burlap can also be a little rough and not very soft on the face so I used a soft cotton plaid for the back of the slipcover (what good is a pillow if you can't use it while napping?). If a nap was needed, the napper could just flip the pillow over and drift off to happy land. I found this red and green plaid fabric at Joanne Fabrics.
When following the directions below, there are basically three major steps to it: making a stencil, stenciling the fabric, and assembling the slip covers. Now hang onto your hats cause here we go!
1. Get the pillows
I wanted to make slipcovers for the pillows so that my mom could easily wash them. Therefore, I could get whatever pillows I wanted (and whatever ones were the cheapest) since they would be covered up by the fabric. I found these light green pillows for $2 each. Not exactly my style (or my mom's) but again, looks didn't matter.
I decided that I wanted burlap to be the front of the slipcover with stencil on it. For anyone that has ever worked with burlap, part of the appeal is the texture. However, this texture also means that you can see right through the fabric. To combat this peek-a-boo characteristic, I decided to line the inside of the burlap with plain white cotton that I already had on hand. Burlap can also be a little rough and not very soft on the face so I used a soft cotton plaid for the back of the slipcover (what good is a pillow if you can't use it while napping?). If a nap was needed, the napper could just flip the pillow over and drift off to happy land. I found this red and green plaid fabric at Joanne Fabrics.
Once I had my fabric, I measured the width of the pillow.
This is where creativity was a must. First, I Googled "moose" and saved a black and white image as a jpeg. Next, I opened the jpeg in Indesign (any graphic design program would work), re-sized it so it would roughly fill up an 8 x 11 inch piece of paper, and printed it off.
Going slowly and carefully,I cut out the moose using an exacto knife. Here's what it looks like mid cut. You can see the moose leg starting to curl up where its been cut.
In order to make a pocket slipcover, the plaid back fabric had to overlap a bit so the pillow wouldn't easily come out. I cut each plaid square in half and hemmed one side of each half. These hemmed sides would be the exposed edges of the pocket on the back side of the pillow. Its the part where the pillow would be pulled in and out (hence needing a finished edge).
I pinned it all together, sewed all four sides, and trimmed off any excess fabric from the edges. Then I turned it inside out (really right side out) and had a complete slipcover: the stenciled burlap was on the front backed by white cotton while the two plaid halves formed the back with an opening in the middle to insert the pillow.
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