Benches and Pillows

I have read about 3 or 4 new blog entries today from different people, all of which had to do with pillows in some form or another. I am aware that I'm not original in the idea of making my own pillows (my last adventure in pillow making was basically completely done by Jeremy's grandmother, bless her heart!). However, I am very happy with how mine turned out. For another great idea for home made pillows check out my friend, Dawn's blog. She's wonderful.

Firstly, (is that a word?) I had Jeremy build 2 benches. They're identically built but the one that goes in our room was painted black and the entry way bench was painted cream (the same cream as the letters on the wooden family sign) and aged with sand paper and stain.

Secondly (which I know is a word!) I got some great baskets for the hallway bench off of amazon (still looking for baskets for the bedroom bench, I've looked everywhere... hook a sister up if you have ideas)

Thirdly, I ordered some burlap from the Online Fabric Store. I got a couple of sacks (primarily got the sacks for the two finished sides that will eliminate just that much more sewing) in the natural color and a couple of yards of dark brown burlap.

Here's my pillow sewing journey:
:::by hand I might add:::
(I don't own a sewing machine... I also don't know how to use one!)

1. I got pillow forms from the craft store and put one inside the sack, measured and cut around it. Since the sack had sides that were finished I decided to take advantage of them! Also, I found when sewing fabric like burlap you must use a thick and sturdy thread. For the pillows in the entry way I used thread that was almost yarn, the ones in the bedroom I used black upholstery thread.

2. I sewed up the third side (yes this isn't the sack burlap, I wasn't the best documenter of this project) When I sew by hand like this, I do one run with the stitches as similar in width and as straight as possible and then back stitch (I literally just googled that term).

3. Don't be afraid to ask for help

4. After the third side is sewn up, shove your pillow form inside what you've sewn5. Fold the remaining fabric inside the pillow, can you tell what I mean by looking at the picture?
6. Here's a finished side
7. From there you can add whatever "accessories" you'd like to jazz up your pillows. For some of my pillows, I added buttons and I also added an "S" to one of our bedroom pillows. Here's how I did that part.
8. I printed and cut out an "s" and placed it on the burlap. I used fabric paint and traced around the letter. Once the paint was fairly dry, I pried the "s" from the fabric and filled it in with more fabric paint.
Fabric paint takes about 4 hours to dry, so after waiting about 2 of those 4 I got impatient and used a blow dryer. Worked like a charm! Then, I cut the letter out and stitched it onto the pillow, and for pure decoration I stitched around the letter. I clearly have a quality camera, the clarity in the picture is the tell tale sign.. try to not let your jealousy show... ha!

Grand Finale!

Bedroom:

Entry way:

Besides the fact that my fingers are in pain from a lack of using a thimble I am stoked about the way they turned out!