Make The Best of Things: January 2015

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Colorful Leaf Pillows

Best most colorful leaf pillows EVER!

I made these for my daughter's new home and I love the way they came out!

These are two of the four I've made her so far, and they are perfect for her red, gold and brown leather living room.

Her drapes are very similar to this fabric. I knew I didn't have coordinating fabric in my stash but I always have canvas and felt.

And I loves me some nice curvy trees so I went full speed ahead. First I cut the square pillow tops of light colored canvas and added a backing of felt for stability and "heft."

From dark brown felt, I cut a tree trunk and curving branches design then sewed it down with machine straight stitching in black thread.

From red, burgundy and gold colored felt I cut several dozen leaf shapes (enough for all four pillows) then pinned them in place. I sewed them down with black thread also. I added veins and small stems to each leaf and even added a few curving branch tips tin some places.

My aim was not a totally neat outline but lines like an ink sketch. I really like how the stitching gives the felt some neat dimension!

Ooh, I really like how bright and colorful these are! And the machine embroidery gives the leaves and trees such neat texture!

In this pair the trees and leaves are smaller and centered on the pillow cover.

She likes them. She likes them ALOT!

Now I need to make some for my own living room. I think some colorful turquoise and red leaf pillows would be perfect in there!

And the family is telling me I should add these to my Etsy shop. I've already developed a line of sweet shabby chic rosette pillow covers in there, so these pillow covers will be a nice addition!