Pillow Talk

I'm not sure why, but lately I've been enamored with silhouettes. Maybe because they seem so classic and timeless, I have been itching to capture Bert's profile with one. I played around and did a small one out of paper in a tiny frame I had laying around, and it was ok. But it didn't quite cut it for me.

Then I was checking out this blog and saw these adorable pillows. I thought, "Hey, I can do that!" Then I thought, "Hey, that would be great for my mom for Mother's Day!" It was a pretty simple project. The hardest part was actually getting out of the house and to the fabric store (which is just sad, because the local Mennonite fabric store is less than five minutes away) and choosing two, and only two, fabrics. Because had I had more cash in my wallet, I might have gone on a fabric binge. If only I sewed more, I might be able to rationalize loads and loads of pretty fabric. Alas, I settled only a quarter-yard of each of two fabrics, a yellow and a blue, to match the guest room (my old bedroom) at my parents' house.

I started off by opening a photo of Bert in profile in Illustrator, making an outline of it, and printing it out. You could trace or freehand a profile too. I'm pretty sure that my kindergarten teacher sat us in front of the light from an overhead projector and traced our shadows. But Bert doesn't sit still so that was out.

Since I had already ironed my fusible interfacing onto the fabric I wanted to use for the silhouette, I had to transfer Bert's profile. I took a soft pencil, traced over the outline, flipped it over onto the fusible interfacing, and rubbed it on. If I hadn't already ironed the fabric on, I probably could have just traced the silhouette through the interfacing.

I decided I wanted a roughly 8" square pillow, so I cut two 9" squares of my yellow background fabric (making them the right size for a 1/2" seam). Then I cut out the silhouette and ironed it to one of the squares.

Then I pinned the squares together, right sides in, and sewed it, leaving about three inches open to stuff the pillow.

Before turning it right-side-out, I clipped the corners so they would be nice and neat when I turned it. Then I turned it, and ironed it one more time.

Then it got stuffed. Since it is just a decorative pillow, I didn't worry about getting a pillow form and making a removable, and therefore washable, pillow cover.

Once it was stuffed to capacity (and I really filled it so that it would be nice and plump, just like Bert in real life), I hand-stitched the opening. And now Bert's face is on a pillow.

I almost wish Bert had a brother or sister so I could have made a sweet little pair of these with two kiddos facing each other. But if there were two kids running around here, the chances of me getting any kind of project done, let alone two of something, would be slim. Really slim.