An Old Sweater to a Valentine Pillow

I found a cute pink sweater at Savers the other day for $2 and thought surely I could make a little something Valentiney out of it.

I came up with this cute little "be mine" pillow which now resides in our master bedroom. 

Appropriate? I think so!

It was super easy if you have a sewing machine....here is how I did it.

This is the sweater I started out with {and still have quite a bit left....that will be another project}.  figure out the size you would like your pillow to be and cut 2 pieces of the sweater making extra room for your seams. Mine is about 15" long and 7" tall {finished size...not counting trim}.

Print out your lettering of choice {hopefully you won't run out of ink like I did}. I used Franklin Gothic {demi cond} at 250. Use whatever fits your pillow size.

Cut out your letters and flip them over so they are backwards. Trace each letter onto the papery side of some Wonder Under. Cut each letter out of the Wonder Under {just a approximate cutting is fine..a square or whatever....you'll cut out the letter in a minute}.

Select your fabric for you letters {I just used some scraps} and iron your letters onto the backside of your fabric. Once they are cooled {unless of course you have fingers of steel...go ahead, do it while it's still hot} Cut out each letter and peel off the back layer of the wonder under {I think this is the hardest part of the whole process...that stuff never wants to separate for me so I have to use a needle to poke between the layers to get it started}.

On the right side of one of your sweater pieces, lay out your lettering an iron it down.

I used a button hole stitch to sew around each letter and I used the same color thread for all the letters. I use the button hole stitch because it is skinnier than a regular zig zag stitch. This takes a little patience, but you can do it. Just stay on the edge of the fabric, not on the sweater. Try not to pull the sweater or you will get little puckers in your pillow {that actually sounds kinda cute...but it won't look cute}.

Mine is far from perfect, but I doubt anyone will be inspecting it. I've never sewn on a sweater before.

If you want a ribbon trim, just take a length of gross grain ribbon at least 1.5" wide and I ran one edge through my machine using the highest tension and a long stitch so as to give it a little ruffle. Not much, just a little. I then sewed it to the right side of the top {lettered} sweater piece, rounding it at the corners. Trim the excess sweater fabric off the corners.

Layer your two sweater pieces right sides together and sew all the way around leaving a 2" opening on one of the long edges. Turn right side out, stuff with batting and slip stitch your opening shut.

Sweet!

Just letting you know, this might not be the last time you see this sweater, I still have a lot of  it left.


this post is linked up to

Somewhat Simple's strut your stuff Valentine's edition

Frugalicious Friday 

Creative Cats 

Inspired Home

Show and Tell Friday

Funky Junk Interior's Saturday Night Special  
Metamorphosis Monday 

Make it for Monday 

Made it Monday 

Just Something I Whipped Up 

Market Yourself Monday

Motivate me Monday 
Making the World cuter Monday 
Kimba's DIY Day 
Beyond the Picket fence's under $100 party 
Valentine Link Party@ Craftaholics Anonymous