Connect the Dots

I’ve been working on a pillow that has me consumed with polka dots lately.  It started with the Hanukkah felt garland and sort of jumped off from there.

Actually, truth be told, inspiration started with a green monster.  That’s what we’ve been calling this guy, who lives on our small sofa.

He moved into our apartment so full of promise, starting life out as a lovely knit throw pillow.  But in less than six months, he’s become ratty, stringy and seems to shed and attach himself to you within seconds of even coming near him.  I’ll confess I’ve been in denial about the need to replace him because that meant admitting that while all the rest of the throw pillows were great bargains from Ikea or Home Goods, he was actually a bit of a splurge from the Nordstrom home decor department before leaving the States.  Normally, I’d just march his Muppet-like state into Nordstrom and return him, but by the time I pack and ship him from Japan and deal with getting a new one back, I’ve come close enough to buying a second one, that it hardly seems worth it.

So….a replacement certainly wasn’t going to come from the exclusive department stores of Ginza, here in Tokyo, so off to Ikea I went.  I chose the Ritva cover and because I didn’t quite plan ahead and measure the pillow insert on the green monster prior to driving an hour each way, I went ahead and bought a new insert, too {never fear, we’ll find something to do with that other pillow someday!}.

So much like the Hanukkah garland project, I began cutting felt circles.  Lots of circles in three different sizes.  I free-handed these since I was going for a “primative meets modern look,” but if that makes you nervous, make templates out of cardboard to trace.

Once I finished cutting, I played around with the different colors and layers to mix and match them until I found what I liked.  I pinned them into place and went to bed.  Trust, me, it was exhausting.

I then made myself a little box filled with scissors, embroidery floss, needles and my felt circles and tossed it my jumbo-sized purse {you didn’t think that just because The Cuties no longer wear diapers I get to carry a petite purse did you?}.  Whenever they were swimming or I was sitting around waiting for them, I’d bust out a circle and work on sewing it together with simple straight stitches.  After about a week and a few bad movies, I managed to get all sixteen circles finished.

Here they are close up, so you can see I varied the colors of both my felt and threads.  In the end, no two circles are alike.

Here’s where you have a choice as a crafter: sew or glue gun.  You can all guess which one I took.  Of course, I hot glued them to my pillow form.  C’mon!  I just hand sewed sixteen circles together, give me some credit for not completely taking the easy way out!

And here it is!

Again, all it cost was the pillow from Ikea.  Everything else were leftovers from previous projects that I had on hand.

Of course after I finished this and was putting away all of my leftover supplies, I spied both of The Cuties’ Girl Scout sashes and the combined two dozen patches that had to be ironed and sewn on.

And promptly pulled my sewing box right back out!

Linked to:

C.R.A.F.T., Creative Jewish Mom, The Girl Creative, Making the World Cuter, Keeping it Simple, Sew Chatty, Craft-o-Maniac, Sumo’s Sweet Stuff, DIY Showoff, Mad in Crafts, Skip to My Lou, Coastal Charm, Tip Junkie. Vintage Wanna Bee, Home Stories A to Z, Sugar Bee Crafts, The Creative Itch Boutique, Funky Polka Dot Giraffe, Not Just a Housewife, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Jembellish, I Should Be Mopping the Floor, The Blackberry Vine, Organize and Decorate Everything, Sew Much Ado, Blue Cricket Design, Night Owl Crafting, Oopsey Daisy, Serendipity and Spice