I feel in love with this outdoor pillow from Pottery Barn the other day. They have some great outdoor pillows on their site and reasonable too. This one was $35, a little more than most of them but really cute and looked hand painted {or at least the illusion of it being hand painted} Once I saw it, I was inspired to make my own. I especially liked the idea of not having to be too perfect on the lines since I can’t draw a straight line to save my life.
Well, this is what I ended up with..
Ok, I know it isn’t exactly like the Pottery Barn one, but you get the idea. Once I had finished painting the flag on the fabric {which was so easy to do because you didn’t have to be perfect} I felt that it needed a little somethin, somethin, {plus I used a pen to make my lines and they were showing through the paint..shhh} so I added on the ruffle trim and some fabric flowers and Ta Da! I just love it!
Here is a brief overview on how I did it.
I used a pillow pattern for the pillow, {only because I happened to have one handy and again, I really can’t cut or draw a straight line so having a pattern helps me} but you can just cut two pieces of fabric to any rectangluar size you want or even make it square!
I did not use outdoor fabric, couldn’t find any in the color I wanted so I used duck cloth instead for the front and just regular blue ticking fabric for the back. {I knew the pillow would be only for decoration outside for a short period, so I figured I was safe not using the outdoor fabric}
{this is where those awesome real bloggers would insert a beautiful PDF of the flag for you to download..but I am not one of those awesome bloggers so I have to do it the old school way}
I used a ruler and pen (don’t suggest that part, a pencil would be better, but I was lazy and used what I had at hand) to draw out the flag on my fabric. I started with the blue area and drew a 5″ x 7″ rectangle (where you put your 50 stars ) and then measured and drew the rest of the flag stripes which ended up being about 1/2″ wide. The whole flag altogether ended up being 9 1/2″ x 14″.
I used regular craft acrylic paint on the duck cloth.
Personally, the stars were a problem for me to draw, so I went with plan “b” and found some silver brad stars in my stash and cut the brads off the back and glued them on. I am going to admit, embarrasingly, that I had to count the stars on the flag and how they were laid out in order to put them on. This is how it goes, 6 across 5 down.
First row 6 stars, Second row staggered 5 stars repeat until you have 5 rows.
I cut and glued store bought ruffle ribbon on top of my stripes. I just happened upon these ruffle ribbons, otherwise I would of used my ruffler, love that thing!
I made fabric flowers from scraps, and glued them on where I thought they should go. I sewed the two sides together, inside out of course, and then turned it right side out (leaving an opening for stufing) I cut open a left over pillow I wasn’t using and stuffed my new pillow and sewed the small opening shut.
I plan on doing other versions of this pillow, (thought of an easier version for the flag so that motivates me even more) that I plan on putting around my yard for the 4th of July, so stay tuned!
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