Burlap pillow

 As you may know already, I have jumped on the burlap band wagon! I love the stuff. It is so diverse, the texture is amazing, AND it's super easy to work with! Oh another bonus: It is pretty cheap. So I first made some burlap curtains for my kitchen that you may see here. After that little project I was hooked. Not to mention all the cool kids are doing it:

Ballard Designs

Restoration Hardware

So I kind of did a little bit of a morph of these pillows. I love them both, so I figured I would really adore them as one. So here is my hand painted burlap tutorial:

 I first made my own pillow insert because they are easy to make and too expensive at hobby stores. So here is what I did. I cut two pieces of fabric in a square

 I then did a zig-zag stitch around three of the sides

 I then stuffed the pillow and closed the last opening

 Doesn't need to look purty cause we are going to cover this bad boy.

 Ok so on with the burlap. I cut two more squares, slightly bigger than the pillow inserts. I then did a zig-zag stitch around the edges of each piece individually. Burlap shreds like crazy. Problem solved!

 I then took my handy dandy stencils and put in some words with fabric paint. Then I taped off three stripes and painted that as well.

Loving this so far? Cause I am! Next I took four strips of cream fabric (twice the length of each side of the squares)

I made my top ones thicker than my bottom. I then folded the fabric over and made a seam with a stitch length of 4.5 ( I have a Brother sewing machine). You then take the top stitch and pull, pull, pull, until the fabric is gathered and it "ruffles"

 Do this until it is the desired length. You want about a quarter of an inch extra on each side. This is for when you are finished with all of the sides and you will sew the ruffles together on the corners. Now pin the ruffle between the two fabrics and do a zig-zag stitch:

 Do this for three sides and insert pillow form before closing the last side:

 Now you are going to take the corners of the ruffles and fold them under to sew them together:

 Cut off the excess ruffle and you are done! yaaaaaa! Super cute pillow below:

 Oh I really really LOVE this one. I think it needs a burlap friend, don't you? Off to make some more pillows!


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