anthro-inspired pillow plus FREE template!

A couple weeks ago I told you about my works in progress and posted this pillow from anthropologie:

via anthropologie

Welp, I made my own version and I am in love with it! Seriously. I look at it and it just makes me smile. I think its just so cheery and bright and springy. Aren’t you smiling now just looking at the picture? You should be! No? Scroll back up and look at it again…

…there we go, you’re smiling now, right?

Anyway, like most things I tackle, this pillow was quite the process. Not quite as involved as my felted loops pillow (both part I and part II), but still, there was a bit of a learning curve. But lucky for you I’m giving you the template I used to save you the time and headaches I went through and you’ll be able to make your own make-me-smile pillow without all the hassle!

But before we get to the freebie, let me tell you a little about the pillow.

The process is actually quite simple, and unlike the anthro pillow I simplified the pieces so there’s only 16 different pieces (most are repeated once) and they are bigger so there isn’t as much to sew.

Cut out all the pieces out of whatever kind of fabric you have and lay it out per the template onto your base fabric. This is a great way to use up some scraps that are really too small to make anything substantial with but you just couldn’t part with them.

Once you have all the pieces laid out on the fabric, you can just use a regular glue stick to tack all the pieces down so you don’t have to deal with all the pins.

**LESSON LEARNED**

Once I had it all lightly glued down, I just went for it and started zig zagging over the pieces. Not the best idea. The fabric started puckering and it wasn’t looking so hot. Solution: Top stitch over all the pieces first. This may seem redundant and monotonous, but it really doesnt take that long and it is sooo worth it.

 Once its all top stitched start satin stitching over the straight stitching.  This is where all the magic happens.  Smiles will start appearing mid satin stitching… you won’t know what came over you.

btw: Satin stitching is just adjusting your zig zag stitching super close together. I practiced with different combinations of widths and zig zag closeness on a scrap before going at it on the pillow.

You can see the puckering at the bottom of the pillow. That’s where I started zig zagging without any top stitching. I’m telling you, don’t do it!

(It’s going to sound like a bit of a cop out for my next step to be, “finish the pillow like any other pillow”, but, I’m going to do it.)

Once you have the flower all sewn on, finish the pillow like any other pillow!

I used just a simple green fabric for the back. I used the same fabric on one of the petals on the front for some consistency. The piping was in a more contrasting fabric. I originally thought I would write a “how to make piping” post last week when I was working on this, but, turns out, I’m not that good at it yet. I can’t very well give you guys a how-to on that when I’m barely getting by on it! Give me a little more time and a few more piped pillows and then I’ll be an ace and share my new skills with you.

Alright, time for the free template! I hope you all make something awesome with it! I’m so excited to be sort of giving away something for the first time on my blog and to share this happy pillow with you, but please remember to give credit where credit is due. If you use the template and post it on your own site or somewhere else please credit me and link back to my site. 1) because its respectful and 2) because I want to see what you did!

Click on the link to download! Printable_OrimonoPillow_StuffStephDoes  enjoy!

note: this is not a full blown pattern for making a pillow, it is only the template for the flower design.