Porch Pillows Post

Happy Monday Gals and Pals!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, and woke up this morning bright-eyed and busy-tailed (who are we kidding...I totally did NOT).

I did have a good weekend, though. On Friday night Tom and I met at the gym after work and I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED working out with my husband! We have not worked out together since....um, never! I will write more about that on Wednesday when I recap the week's workouts.

We ran errands and did stuff around the house for the rest of the weekend and it was so nice to get some things done! I have had a little crafty-project brewing in my mind for some time now, and Sunday was the day I finally had time to execute it.

Although this blog was originally intended to be solely about running, and leading a healthy lifestyle, I do stray from time to time. And by 'from time to time' I mean...a lot. :) But no big deal because my life is about so much more than sweating, drinking smoothies, and keeping one eye on the scale all the time.

Aside from Healthy Living blogs, my second favorite blog genre is DESIGN BLOGS. I love reading how other people decorate, and DIY, and I especially love getting a peak inside their homes. I'm creepy like that.

Some of my favorites are:

• Young House Love


• harbour breeze


• The Lettered Cottage


• Scissors & Spatulas


• Bower Power


• Tator Tots and Jell-o

and many many more.

So today I wanted to share a little DIY that I whipped up on Sunday. It is a super-easy project and I hope you'll try it and report back, if you're feelin' crafty in the near future.

This project is a monogrammed pillow cover. I do not have a monogram machine, but I have a standard sewing machine which I have learned to use pretty well since I got it as a gift from my mom at Christmas. I knew I wanted to use this pillow for the rocking chairs on my front porch. I loved the idea of doing a single letter monogram on one, and our street address on the other. I had seen this in a magazine somewhere...I think it might have been Ballard Designs...and they were like $40 for a personalized pillow cover!

I have about $10 invested in this project by only having to buy a couple things, and using the rest of the supplies with things I already had.

So here it is:

What you'll need:

• Freezer Paper ($6 at Wal-Mart for 150 feet!)


• Scotch tape (already had it)


• Exacto Knife ($2)


• Craft Paint ($.50)


• Craft Paintbrush ($1.49 for a 5-pack)


• Fabric of your choice (leftover from another project)


• Iron (already had it)


• Cardboard or cutting mat (free-used cardboard)


• Monogram template: (free) I made my template by printing out a 'W' in Microsoft Word. This particular monogram is in Times New Roman font, size 350.


• Pillow inserts (already had these)


• Total price: $9.99!

Freezer paper is great for creating sencils to be used on fabric...look, it even says so right on the box! You can get it at the grocery store in the same section with aluminum foil and plastic wrap. First, print out your template and lay it on a flat, hard surface. Play around with fonts and sizes. I wanted a print, not a script. Partly because I like the way it looks, and partly because I figured the straight lines would be easier than a bunch of swirly-girly lines for my first time trying this.

Anyway, place the freezer paper on top of it, SHINY SIDE DOWN. Tape down paper to hold it securly...only one or two peices of scotch tape will do. With a pencil (or pen if you're feeling confident!), trace the letter onto your freezer paper.

Remove the template underneath, so you're left with your letter drawn on the freezer paper.

Next, tape your freezer paper (again, only a couple of peices will do) onto a peice of cardboard or cutting mat, and use your Exacto knife to cut out your stencil. This was easier than I thought it would be because the Exacto knife is very easy to you. And it's very...well, exact.

Once you are done cutting, very carefully peel the letter off, revealing your ready-to-use stencil!

Now get your fabric. My fabric is a 20" square, so I used a measuring tape to center the 'W' at the 10 inch mark. Remember to place your stencil on the fabric SHINY SIDE DOWN. Secure with tape.

Place your fabric on an ironing board and use a DRY iron (no steam) to iron the stencil into place. It will adhear to the fabric like a not-so-sticky-sticker, without even damaging your fabric!

Next, get your paint and paint brush handy and paint over your stencil!

I would recommend putting down an old peice of fabric or something, becasue my paint bled through the fabric a little, leaving some paint on my ironing board cover. :(

Gently paint in your stencil, careful not to get it too terribly gloppy (<--gloppy is a technical decorating term, didn't you know?).

Set aside and let it dry. It only takes about 5-7 minutes for the paint to dry, and the ironed-on stencil to cool. Carefully pull back the stencil, revealing your beautiful, hand-painted monogram!

Now, mine had a couple of little imperfections on one side of the 'W.'

So I just used a teeny tiny brush, and a teeny tiny bit of paint to fix it. Voila! Good as new!

Now, this is the front of your pillow cover, obviously. I picked a coordinating black-and-linen fabric to go on the back.

I am not going to do a whole tutorial on how to make a pillow cover because I am not a seasoned seamstress, and I do a lot of things wrong. Like, I don't pin, I don't measure, I just eye ball it and go!

But basically you place your front peice and your back peice together, with the pretty sides facing each other.

Sew the edges together...

And turn inside-out. And there you have it! An adorable pillow cover that is personalized and hand-made with L-O-V-E! :)

I plan to use mine on my fornt porch because we have two black rocking chairs that have pillows in them that I bought when we had been married for about five minutes. A long time ago. Right now, I have the red paisly pillows out there (still cute...three years later), and this adorable 'W' that Sara Whit gave me for Christmas. We love a monogram around these parts..can you tell?

Here is the street veiw....

But with my new personalized pillows (remember I made an additional one with our street address on it, but had to crop it out for the sake of the internet)...It'll look like this! Paired with this cute wreath I got on clearance at Pottery Barn about 100 years ago:

Reba likes it too...she says, "Welcome! Come on in!"

Here I am...proud of my Sunday afternoon project! Goofer.

I also made two navy-blue striped pillows to go with my American Flag on the front door for Fourth of July. For now, this is what the porch looks like:

But after the 4th I think I'll put out my new stenciled pillows. Cute, huh?!

I have one more decorating/DIY/boring/my-house post later this week and then I'm done I promise.

Have a great week, everyone!