This heart pillow is inspired by an Anthropologie one, so you’ll need fabric of the darker color and the lighter one, some filling (you can take from an old pillow), a sewing machine and a pen. Once you’ve washed, dried and ironed your fabric, cut out your pillow pieces from the darker linen. For the back, you want to cut two pieces that are the same width as the front. To figure out the length measurements, add 6″ to the length of the front, then divide by two. Now you need to cut a crapload of various-sized hearts. Read the rest of the tutorial here and finish the pillow!
Source: endlesslyinspired
1.No, your eyes did not deceive you. That pillow is in fact $198. TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS. FOR A PILLOW. The chair I’d put it on didn’t even cost $198!
So naturally I needed to figure out a way to make it myself. And I did.
It was definitely time-consuming sewing all those hearts, but I absolutely love how it turned out. {I did, however, realizes a few slight changes I’d make next time, and I will note those as I go.}
I just used two different colors of linen — the darker one cost me about $6, and the lighter one was a remnant I found for about $3.50. And I just used an old, ugly pillow I had on hand for the insert, so the whole thing cost me less than $10. Way better than $200, in my opinion. 95% off is a discount I can get behind.
3.Now comes the rather time-consuming part: sewing all those hearts. I loved how the Anthropologie pillow was sewn with contrasting thread, so I used navy, but if you’d prefer a more monochromatic look, you could use white or off-white. Just sew around each heart, about 1/4″ in from the edge. Sewing around some of the smaller hearts can be a bit tricky — if you’re having trouble, here is a great video tutorial that shows you a few tips. Be sure to backstitch a couple of times at the beginning and end of each heart so that the stitches don’t unravel when you wash the cover.
Once you have all your hearts sewn, use a light-colored thread to do a quick seam around the entire front piece, about 1/8″ in from the edge so that it doesn’t fray when you wash it. Then wash and dry the front piece again. When you get it out of the dryer, your hearts will all be beautifully frayed!
I just love it — it turned out exactly how I saw it in my head, which, let me tell you, is not necessarily a given with me. {And if you’re wondering, that orange pillow is from my amazing friend Amy at Mindfully Made Studios!}
2.The case itself is just an envelope pillow cover, so that means no zippers! Yay! {Zippers scare me.}
Before you start, you need to prewash both fabrics. I know I’ve said before that I don’t have the patience to prewash fabrics, but again for this one, you’re going to need to because you’ll be washing it once you have the hearts sewn on, and you don’t want it to shrink then.
Once you’ve washed, dried and ironed your fabric, cut out your pillow pieces from the darker linen. To make sure you have a nice, fluffy pillow, cut your front piece to the exact measurements of your pillow form. Mine was 18″ square, so I cut an 18″ square for the front. For the back, you want to cut two pieces that are the same width as the front. To figure out the length measurements, add 6″ to the length of the front, then divide by two. For my pillow, it was: 18″ + 6″ = 24″ ÷ 2 = 12″. So that means I cut two pieces of the darker linen to 18″ x 12″.
Now you need to cut a crapload of various-sized hearts. I ended up with 39 on mine, but I’d probably do a few more on my next one. The easiest way to do this {If you don’t have a Silhouette or other cutting machine} is to cut out a couple of different sized hearts from paper the way you did when you were in elementary school. Once you have a few different sized heart templates {I used four different sizes}, then just fold your lighter colored fabric over just enough to fit the template, and start cutting.
When you have enough hearts, start laying them out on your pillow front. If I were to make this again, I’d put them even closer than I did, because they shrink up a lot when you fray them.
Once you have them where you want them, you want to do something to make them stay there so you can sew them on. This time, I used small pieces of iron-on interfacing, making sure that the edges of the hearts weren’t stuck down so they’d fray properly. However, next time I think it would be easier just use a dot of fabric glue in the center of each heart. You could also tack them down with a couple of large stitches in the center that you remove later.
4.You’re almost done! All you have to do now is make the actual pillow cover. Take your two 18″ x 12″ back pieces and iron a 1/2″ hem along one of the longer sides of each piece. Then sew a straight seam along the fold.
Place your front piece down on your work surface, right side UP. Place one of your back pieces right side DOWN so that the hem you just sewed goes across the middle of the front piece. Place your second back piece right side DOWN on top of the first one, again so the hem goes across the middle. Your two back pieces will be overlapped.
Pin all the way around the pillow cover, and trim the back pieces if necessary. {My front piece shrunk a bit when I washed it the second time, so the back pieces were a bit wider than the front.}
Now, just sew all the way around the entire pillow case. Turn it right side out, stuff in your pillow insert, and you’re done!
You tell me: Do you shop at Anthropologie, or do you use it more as a source of inspiration, like I do??
