Of late I've had an obsession with throw pillows, especially seasonal throw pillows. It is an easy way to decorate for the seasons. However, it can get pretty pricy if you buy pillow covers for each season. Hence my attempt at a seasonal Valentine's Day pillow.
I was inspired by a tutorial from the Woodgrain Cottage, where she creates a Christmas pillow spelling out the word "Joy" with fabric rosettes. I decided to try and make a similar version myself, but for Valentine's Day--spelling out the letters XO.
First I made a number of fabric rosettes using leftover denim linen fabric I already had. Weirdly the denim scraps I had matched the fabric of the new wingback chairs we got from World Market exactly. I cut eighteen strips of the fabric 1 1/2" wide and 20" long to make the rosettes.
You then fold each strip in half lengthwise and roll starting at one end. Next you pinch the fabric and twist it every so often while you are rolling the fabric. You use the glue gun to secure the fabric while you are rolling and twisting it to make the rosette shape.
For the pillow, I started with two tea towels from IKEA, the red stripe TEKLA towel which are $.49 each. I sewed two of the towels together with my sewing machine because the fabric was thin and somewhat see-through. Then I just folded the fabric over and sewed up the three edges leaving a gap on one side to stuff the pillow with pillow filler.
However, before I stuffed the pillow I laid out where I wanted the fabric rosettes in the XO pattern, marking in pencil where I was going to attach them. I then sewed on the fabric rosettes by hand using the gap I had left open on the side of the pillow to secure the underside of the rosettes to the fabric. (In retrospect it would have been easier to sew the rosettes on first and then sew the sides of the pillow up).
After the rosettes were attached, I stuffed the pillow and sewed up the remaining unfinished side. There you have it an XO fabric rosette pillow. It would also be cute to make a heart pillow with fabric rosettes for Valentine's Day. Hope you love it!
Anne with an E