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!
Oh how cute–the stitching detail is perfect too!
I love how this turned out!!! Just beautiful. Love your sewing box too…great idea!
So adorable. I have a real thing for cute pillows.
LOVE the pillow, I may have to steal this idea for our upcoming Irish holiday. Also, Kudos to you for taking the time to sew on all those Girl Scout badges. I always just used permanent Heat and Bond and ironed on both sides worked really well.
This pillow is just adorable. And I love that “green monster”, too! Would be delighted if you’d link up to my brand new party:
http://www.ishouldbemoppingthefloor.com/2012/01/mop-it-up-mondays-party-1.html
{HUGS},
kristi
So cute! The green is so striking with the thread colors! Following your blog!
SWEET! (so THAT’s what you’ve been up to LOL :P) You are inspiring.
such clean and perfect stitching!! amazing…although the inspiration was a green monster, looks like green turned out to be THE is the perfect color! PINNED IT for inspiration and guidance in lovely stitching
I love this pillow!!! It’s such a neat idea! (as ideas to make cool felt dotted pillows roll through my head…) Thank you for posting this~! 🙂
I love the new pillow, but I almost hate to admit that I like the original too….great green! I do like the new a little better…a little more up to date. Great job. I’m following so stop by and visit…Lori
Wow – I love the color combo on this pillow. I’ve always wanted to do something like this, but I don’t have the patience for all of that stitching. Great job!
Visiting from Home Stories link party.
What a great pillow! Looks like it’s straight out of some swanky home magazine!
I would love if you came over and linked this project to my weekly Round Tuit party at:
http://jembellish.blogspot.com/
Have a great week!
Jill @ Creating my way to Success
Oh, love it! There is just nothing like dots… just more dots! 🙂
This is so cute! I love that you used the glue gun. Thanks for sharing!
Just darling!! Would love for you to stop by The Blackberry Vine and share at the Tuesday To Do Party!
Smiles!
Jami
http://www.blackberryvine.blogspot.com
I love this! l love the colors and the stitching on it as well, great job. I just love doing stuff with felt, I may have to try this out! Thanks for sharing!
What a great transformation! I’m hosting a favorite things linky party and would love it if you stop by and post something!
-Melissa
http://serendipityandspice.blogspot.com/2012/01/manic-monday-linky-party-3.html
oh my, I LOVE it!!! What an adorable pillow. This is my first time to your blog. So glad I stopped by.
What a lovely pop of color!
love it! it reminds me of those American Penny rugs that i always wanted to make but never quite got there, especially since there’s no good felt in my part of the world…..so I’ll just gaze at your lovely work, and say thanks for sharing on Craft Schooling Sunday, great to see you again!
I LOVE the colors you chose!!! It’s fantastic. I’m such a sucker for pillows! Thanks for sharing at oopsey daisy!
Beautiful blog and great photos!!!