Krafty Kath and I are both designers by day and bloggers by night. Kathy is an amazing visual designer while my background is more in the realm of interaction design, which means where she has mastery over color, composition and type, I simply have admiration and respect for such details. Today’s craft is a nod to our mutual love of typography. All credit is owed to Kathy Kath for designing and making such a fun, decorative pillow.
DIY joy pillow
Depending on your sewing level, and paint drying time, it takes about a day and a half to complete this project.
Materials
- 16” inch pillow insert
- 17” x 17” square of cotton twill fabric (front of pillow)
- 26” x 17” rectangle of cotton twill fabric (back of pillow)
- Thread to match
- Multi-surface acrylic or fabric paint (2 colors)
- Alphabet (Joy) Template
- Sewing machine
- Iron
- Scissors
- Paint brushes (flat and small tip)
- Silhouette Cameo and Xyron or transfer pencil (see Step 2)
Step 1
If you haven’t cut your cotton twill, cut the front side of the pillow into a 17″ square. Cotton twill is a nice fabric for pillows because it’s thick enough for décor, but not too thick that it’s hard to manage while sewing.
Step 2
First you need to print out the Alphabet (Joy) Template. These instructions require a Silhouette Cameo and a Xyron, however if you want to use the transfer pencil method, you will need to flip the template artwork so it’s reversed before you print it out. (You can reference this post on Krafty Kath for the transfer pencil method.) If you have a Silhouette Cameo, you can cut it out as-is.
Step 3
Once you have your stencil cut out, remove the individual letters carefully.
Step 4
Carefully peel off your stencil from your cutting mat.
Step 5
Now cut your stencil in half (in-between the 3rd and 4th row) so you have two halves.
Step 6
Gently run each half through a Xyron machine to adhere the sticky backing.
Step 7
Remove the backing and place in the center of your 17″ square front fabric. Make sure to align the two pieces.
Step 8
Make sure your stencil is firmly placed on your fabric. Now you can begin to paint. With a square tip paint brush and using an up and down dabbing motion, gently paint the “JOY” letters one color and the remaining alphabet another color.
Step 9
Remove your stencil from the fabric.
Step 10
Fill in your empty areas that the stencil made using the fine tip paint brush. These are letters like A, B, D, O, P, Q, and R. Then touch up the edges where the paint bled.
Step 11
For the back of the pillow, if you haven’t already, cut a 17″ x 26″ rectangle of the same fabric. Cut that piece in half vertically.
Step 12
Take one piece and fold over one inside edge 1/2” and then fold over again. Iron the folded edge flat and use a couple pins to hold the fold down. Repeat to the other piece.
Sew each of the pinned pieces right down the center of the fold, approximately 1/4” from the edge.
Step 13
To assemble the pillow, place the front side of the pillow (painted side) up on the table. Take the two pieces of the backside and overlap them to match the 17” x 17” square. Place the right sides to the painted side and pin together.
Step 14
Sew around all four sides 1/4″ to 1/2″ from the edge.
Step 15
Trim the excess seams on the inside and then turn the case right side out.
Step 16
Insert the pillow insert inside the case.
Oh joy! You just created a new Christmas pillow!
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