Knife Edge Painted Pillow

Stenciled Pillows are a HUGE trend right now in home decor.  In an effort decorate my daughter's dorm room on a budget we attempted to make our own pillows.
With the help of a Silhouette vinyl cutter we created a few stencils and we loved our end result!

TIPS:

• It helps to work with a heavy weight fabric.
• Use a Textile Medium with your acrylic paint.  You can find with the acrylic paints at the store. 
• sew your zipper on the bottom of the pillow (below your stencil) since you have now made your fabric a directional print.

                                Knife Edge Painted Pillow

Supplies Needed

½ yard heavy weight fabric

16” pillow form

Thread to match

18” invisible zipper

Acrylic paint

Textile medium

Stencil

Stencil brush

Scrap paper

Mixing bowl/cup

Mixing spoon

Cutting Instructions:

Cut 2 -- 17” X 17” squares

Prepping the Fabric to Paint:

1.  Prepare the area where you will be painting.  Place newspaper or paper on the counter top. 
2. Mark Center on the front pillow piece by folding the fabric in quarters, finger press or lightly press with iron (avoid ironing a permanent crease).
3.  Decide where you want the stencil on your fabric.  **Note** remember that you will be taking ½” seam allowances, allow plenty of clearance around the edges of the fabric.
4.  Remove the backing (white) on your stencil. You have now exposed your sticker.  Carefully place the stencil in the place you’ve determined.  Smooth carefully and firmly across the stencil. 
5. Remove the grid transfer paper by slowly and carefully peeling it back!

Preparing the Paint:

1. Mix 2 parts Paint to 1 part Textile Medium.  The textile medium prevents the painted area from being heavy and stiff. 
2.  Tips for stenciling:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=immo_S3_l7k  --How to Stencil T-shirts
•   Keep your brush dry—use small amounts of paint
• Tap excess paint off the brush by tapping on the plate
•  Use quick up and down motion to transfer the paint to the fabric, do not brush the paint on, it will bleed under the stencil.
3. Carefully peel the stencil from the fabric. 
4.  Let your fabric dry.
5. Heat set your design with a dry iron.  Place a pressing cloth over the design and move the iron over it for 20 seconds.  Do not wash the newly painted design for 7 days after painting.

Sewing the Pillow:  Invisible Zipper

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ttAN0D1XOI –Singer Invisible Zipper Presser Foot Tutorial

1.       Press ½” to the wrong side on the bottom side of pillow front and pillow back.

 2.       Unzip the invisible zipper.  Line the zipper teeth along the crease right sides together.  Pin top edge of zipper along the side edge of the pillow.

3.       Use the Invisible Zipper Foot to apply this zipper.  *use the video tutorial above as a reference*

Sewing the Rest of the Pillow:

1.        Place Fabric RST. Pin.  Sew ½” seam allowances.  Leave zipper unzipped when sewing the seam allowances. 

2.        Clip corners. Press seams open. Turn right side out.  Push out corners with a point to create a crisp corner.  Roll seams and Press.  Insert pillow form.