Mommy And Me Mini Valentine Pillows

Mommy And Me Mini Valentine Pillows

Two other ladies and I have been teaching a 3rd-8th grade girls’ class at my church. We have the girls while their mothers are being taught by the pastor’s wife. We are teaching them to be Workers At Home, just like the older women are commanded to teach the younger women in Titus 2:5:

 to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.

Since we’ll be making mini valentine pillows in class next week, I thought it would be a good idea to make a pillow myself, before we attempt to teach 27 girls how to make them. My two youngest daughters are in the class, so I was excited when my 10 year-old wanted to make a pillow too. She hand-sewed around her appliqué felt heart beautifully, and used the sewing machine for the first time.

It was Friday, and I had a long stretch of time ahead of me before it was time for my regular Friday night date with my husband. I decided to go whole-hog on my mini valentine pillow. I used the embroidery machine, the paint brush, and buttons for embellishment.

The best part though, was sewing with Stella. I named her after my grandmother, who taught me to hand-sew, embroidery, and cross stitch decades ago. I’ve had varying levels of success at teaching my 4 daughters to sew. Some of them aren’t interested at this point in their lives. However, I’m thinking of doing Friday afternoon sewing projects as part of my homeschool curriculum.

Your pillow doesn’t have to be as decorative as mine, but I’ve included all the instructions, in case you want to go all the way.

Materials Needed for Mommy And Me Mini Valentine Pillows:

embroidery machine (and general supplies like thread, etc.)

sewing machine (and general supplies)

fleece material

felt heart

iron-on fabric adhesive ( I ordered a few yards of Heat N’ Bond from Amazon)

iron

scissors (different ones for paper and fabric)

parchment paper

mechanical pencil, pen, regular pencil

red and black paint (I used basic black and red Apple Barrel paints)

liner paint brush

square object for pillow template (I used a 7″ square Priority Mail box)

decorative buttons

stuffing- I used Poly-Fil, from Walmart

Cutex Nail Polish Remover

Instructions:

Trace around your square object two times on the fleece, then cut. You could also use a rotary cutter (I have a cutter, but no mat). These two pieces of fabric will eventually be the front and back of your pillow. Leave a border of fabric around the pillow pattern when you cut. You will trim this later after you machine sew the front and back of your pillow together. My object was a 7” square Priority Mail Box. I used a pen for tracing. Cutex Nail Polish Remover gets rid of stray ink marks that show after you finish the project. My mother always used a special fabric marker. Maybe I should order one of those from Amazon. I like to use ink because it’s easy to see, but cleaning up with Cutex does require an extra step at the end.

Trace around the iron-on fabric adhesive (I used Heat N’ Bond) using the felt heart as your pattern, then cut. You want your adhesive heart to be the same size as the felt one.

Place the felt heart on your ironing board, and lay the adhesive heart (paper side up) on top. Make sure your adhesive heart is perfectly aligned on top of the felt one, because the iron will shortly bond them together. Place parchment paper over both, then iron. Afterwards, peel the adhesive paper off. Your heart now has a sticky side, so you can iron it onto the fleece pillow front.

Find the center of your pillow front by folding it in half; place a pin to mark the center spot. Center the felt heart on the pillow front; sticky side down (use the centered stick pin as your guide). Place parchment paper on top and iron. This will keep it from slipping around while you stitch it nicely to the  fleece. If you don’t have any iron-on adhesive, you can pin the heart to the fleece while you hand-sew it on.

I used a simple back stitch to sew around the outside of my heart, while my daughter used a charming little straight stitch on the inside of her heart.

I used my Brother 2500 Embroidery machine to embellish my heart. You could hand-embroidery a design, or even use vinyl letters to embellish your pillow. Use the largest, thickest font on the embroidery machine to sew the word BE. The offset B and E happened by accident, when my cloth separated from the frame. Sometimes accidents bring happy outcomes. I do like the offset look of the B and E. My thread kept breaking, probably because the felt and fleece were so thick. I recommend embroidering on the felt heart before you iron it onto the fleece.

Sew on buttons or other embellishments. I adore buttons. My mother-in-law gave me two big jars from Garland Sewing Factory.

Using Microsoft Word, write COZY with the size 48 Forte font, then print.

Trace it onto the desired area with a mechanical pencil end (without the lead). My chalk pattern didn’t come out very clear. Next time I’m working with felt, I’ll choose another method. Paint the letters with Apple Barrel Black, using a liner brush. If you mess up with the black paint, go back in with some red to clean things up. Sometimes I use paint that matches my background color to thin out letters, or paint over bumps or bulges.

Use a blow dryer to speed up the drying process. Dust off any remaining chalk with your fingers.

Pin both sides of the pillow together, with right sides facing. Sew along the ink lines using the #9 zig zag stitch. You can use a straight stitch, if you prefer. Don’t forget to leave a few inches open for stuffing.

Trim the edges of the pillow with scissors, then turn your pillow out. Use the eraser end of a pencil to push the corners out.

Here comes the good part- stuff your pillow. I used Poly-Fil from Walmart. Make your pillow nice and fat. Hand-sew the opening shut.

You’re done! I hope you enjoyed making your Mommy And Me Mini Valentine Pillows!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Kristie

This post was featured in: Over the Moon Linky Party, Share Some Love Linky

If you liked this post, subscribe to Love My Little Cottage blog here to get every post by email.

If you make Mommy And Me Valentine Pillows, post a picture in the comments and I’ll add it to this post.

Looking for a good Super Bowl recipe?

Make a 3 Ingredient Football Cheese Ball here

Read Sweet N’ Simple Valentine Flag here

Make Boho Valentine Napkins and Rings here

This post is linked to: Snickerdoodle Create Bake Make Party, Share Some Love Link Party, Happiness is Homemade Linky, Merry Monday, Handmade Monday, Made By You Mondays, Inspire Me Monday, You’re the Star Blog Hop, Over the Moon Linky, Classy Flamingos, Tuesdays With a Twist, Beautifully Made, OMHGWW Blog Hop, Talk of the Town, Virtual Refrigerator Blog Hop, Waste Not Wednesday, WW Blog Hop, Encouraging Hearts and Home, Thursday Favorite Things, Friday Favorites, Friendship Friday, Funtastic Friday, Thrifty Thursday, Creative Inspirations, Friday Features Linky Party, Best of the Weekend, Morning Cup of Joe