Stenciled Holiday Pillows

The sofa that we recently purchased for our sunroom came with some throw pillows, but I wanted to change them up for the holidays.  Is there anyone out there who doesn’t love a cute accent pillow, or two, or in this case, four?  I checked out the holiday fabric at a couple different stores, but I ended up buying off white denim and fabric paint instead. After painting a wood Thanksgiving sign, I wanted to give painting on fabric a try.  I was thinking about using the Cricut to make words to trace, but I found some stencils that I purchased for another project sitting on my desk so I decided to use those.  

First I obviously needed something to paint.  I wanted to just make envelopes to cover the existing pillows.  These were seriously the easiest pillows I have ever made (but then again, I haven’t really made too many pillows).  

I basically cut out a big rectangle that was:

[(height of pillow + 1")] x [(length of pillow *2) +  3.5"]  

The 1″ allows for 1/2″ seams at top and bottom, and the 3.5″ allows for 1.5″ overlap of the envelope and 2″ for the outer edge hem.

They pretty much required three seams:  first outer envelope edge, then top and bottom seams.  The inner portion of the envelope is actually the salvage so I didn’t bother sewing that (if you don’t want to leave the raw salvage, you will have to add another inch or two to the 3.5″ and create a hem).  I didn’t really take photos of the sewing part because I think it is pretty self explanatory:

• Make outer edge of envelope by folding one of the short sides of the rectangle 1″ in and 1″ again.  This creates a nice thick edge. Pin, then stitch along edge.
• With right sides together, fold the sides in to create an envelope where the edges overlap by 1.5″ and the salvage edge is on top (this will be the inner portion of the envelope once turned right side out).  Pin along the top and the bottom, stitch with 1/2″ seam.  
• Turn right side out and stuff with your pillow.  

I probably could have stopped there, but I took out the stencils and started tracing…

It’s hard to see, but “Merry”, “Christmas”, “Happy”, and “New Year”  were what I chose to  paint…

I took my time and carefully painted each letter with a fine detail brush and the washable fabric paint.  I let them dry, put my pillows inside, and that’s it!  

I am very pleased with how they turned out,

and so is Stewie (who, by the way,  pulls that blanket down every day so he can either sit on it or wrap himself up in it.).  

The best part of the pillows is I can easily remove them and wash them if necessary.  I can even use the “Happy” one for other holidays.  

Let’s see…Easter, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, oh the possibilities are endless!  

What do you think?  Have you switched up your pillows for the holidays?  How many pillows is too many?