I found this lovely soft linen fabric at Jo Ann Fabrics. The living room is a sage green and everything else in it is neutral; so I wanted the pillows to have some pop. I particularly love the teal blue fabric; it's one of my favorite colors!
I started by measuring the old pillows because I wanted the new ones to be roughly the same size. And to save money, I was going to use the old stuffing in the new pillows.
After measuring the pillows, I cut the new fabric to the same size. The linen fabric had wrinkled, so I ironed it before I started working with it.
I had bought some cream paints for the fabric. I don't know it they are washable or not. I also bought a fern stencil at Jo Ann's, and used one my sister had given me (a bird on a branch).
I worked on the bird stencil first, using a short stout brush to pick up some of the paint. Using a circular motion, I brushed the red on first. It wasn't easy to wash the brush, so I just loaded it with more paint and kept working. This caused an interesting effect when I went from red to green. It made brown, which was perfect for the branches.
hen I washed the brush with soap and water. The green turned out much better after that, and so did the pink flowers. I stenciled on the ferns in the same way (just held them down, didn't tape them).
I left the fronts to dry overnight. The next day, I assembled the pillows- right sides together, sewing along the edges with a stretch stitch. The reason I used it was because we have a tendency to beat up our pillows, and they needed a little 'give'.
After they were finished, I turned them right side out and used the stuffing from the old pillows to stuff them. I ended up having to buy two more bags of stuffing to get them full enough (I like firm pillows), but the end product was well worth it.
