Thursday, January 27, 2011

New Burlap Heart Pillow - PINK!

I have another burlap project here!   First, I have to apologize for this lengthy post.  I'm not good at cutting down or packing light.  Please feel free to skim over this because, I just bet you all know how to make this!  But just in case - here we go!  




This is something I had been thinking about for a while but needed to get through the holidays first.  I have worked on several burlap projects and got to thinking - wonder if I could dye this stuff and have more color options?   Heck yea!  And I chose PINK for my first attempt.  




I bought the lightest cream-colored burlap I could find.  Don’t know why but I really wanted to do something pink!   Sooo – I decided on RIT Fuchsia dye.  I remember using RIT as a kid {eons ago} and it was so easy.  Still is! 

I followed the RIT instructions for a washing machine.  The longest cycle on my machine was for 12 minutes so I set a timer and before it could drain I would turn the dial back to the 12 minutes.  I did this twice, using cold water.  My husband hooked our machine up and just can’t understand why the hot water doesn’t work.   Duh?  All you lovely ladies out there with handyman husbands – I am so jealous!  Mine is a true “bull in a China shop” but I guess I will keep him!   He's lucky he's cute!



Ok- small problem.  I was a little impatient {surprise there!} and, even though I knew burlap would unravel in the washing machine, I had no idea just how much!  Wow, bet I lost about 5 – 6 inches off the width. {Grrr}  Next time I will loosely stitch the sides   Or try liquid fray check.  {You can see in the picture how much it unraveled}   If you don’t want to mess with that I would highly recommend using a piece at least one fourth wider than the size you want to work with.  Thankfully, my washing machine survived!  

Now – on to the pillow!  Whew – it took a while to get here and I will try to make this as short and sweet as possible!  {Big wink here}

 

Made 23 of these red burlap rosette puppies.  Yep, these guys get a little hairy looking...... actually really hairy looking.  But hey - that is so part of burlap charm.  {I did trim them up a bit.}  They were a little unruly and I'm so sorry I don't have a pic of that.  Next time.


I wanted a 14 x 14 inch finished pillow so I made a 16 x 16 pattern.  And cut it out!


  Saving this fringe for another project, another day!  Ha!  Always dreaming.......

Took a square piece of paper 8 x 8 inches, folded it in half, sketched out half a heart, then cut it out for my heart pattern.   {Kindergarten skills here guys}  Bingo!  I used this pattern to cut out the red felt  heart I was going to use for the base of my 23 rosette heart.



Arranged the flowers on the heart, and once I liked the way it looked I glued these babies onto the felt heart with Liquid Stitch.   





Since I had a little trouble with the large ric rac on my other pillow, I decided to make my own red burlap piping for this one.  Using a wooden yardstick I measured 2 inch diagonal strips on what was left of my 1/2 yard of red burlap.  These were shorter pieces than I would like because – well – that’s all I had!  


Cut out 5 strips and sewed them together at the ends.  Ironed the seams, folded the strip in half and loosely stitched it around cotton cording to make the burlap piping.  



Then, centered the heart on the pillow and sewed this lovely bunch of flowers onto the pink burlap pillow square, making sure to stitch through each flower to keep any of these guys from falling off.  {Sorry no picture because I know you know how to do this}   Now I was ready to finally finish!  Yay and more yay!!!  Pinned the cording in between the two pillow squares {with their right sides facing - but, yet again, I know you know how this goes}   Stitched around the pillow, leaving 5 inches open to turn it right side out.  Yea, that's larger than you normally like but I wanted to be sure my rose filled heart survived the turning out!


And here is my newest baby ready to all grow up!

  All grown up!
Well, it's not quite what I envisioned, but close.  I originally was thinking pink and black.  Maybe next time.?
Wish the final picture did the pillow justice..  I hope to get better at this soon!  .


There's a fun party going on now through April 30th 
check it out!




The DIY Show Off

Now that I finally figured out how to link to the parties and put their link to my POST  and NOT just my blog, here they are in no particular order order:




14 comments:

  1. Now this is relly sweet looking and CUTE too!

    Blessings,
    Linda

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  2. So cute! It is really unique and that is what makes it so adorable. Looks like it might be easy enough that I could even do it!

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  3. Thanks for your sweet comments Linda and Alicia. I know you could do this Alicia!

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  4. Hi there~ This is absolutely darling! I love the pink and the red along with it is perfect!! Thanks for sharing at Feathered Nest Friday! :)

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  5. Thank you Courtney! That's such a compliment coming from someone as talented as you!

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  6. I like it, I think it turned out really cute.

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  7. Love the colors! The pillow turned out so cute.

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  8. Thanks you Al and Trisha! You are so kind

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  9. Love your pillow and love that you died the burlap. I never would of thought of that. So creative!

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  10. Thanks Dana! I hope to try more colors soon! I'm ready for Spring colors!

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  11. I love this!! Was wondering where you got pink burlap!! Now I see!! :)

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  12. Ha - It was so easy to dye. Always loved changing things up! Thanks you so much! Hope you will try it

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  13. Love the rossetes! The pillow looks great!

    I am having a giveaway on my blog. $40 to get any vinyl decal from Urba Walls. check it out!
    http://houseonashwelllane.blogspot.com/2011/04/40-store-credit-from-urban-walls-to-get.html

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  14. This pillow turned out so sweet. I love the pink and red color combo.

    Thanks so much for dropping by my blog. I hope you enjoy the recipes. :)

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