How To Make a Picture Frame Pillow . . .

My sister, Michelle's granddaughter's birthday party was April 20th.  I was out of town that weekend for a Women of Joy conference so I couldn't make the party, but I wanted to do something special for her birthday.

Since I don't have any little girls in my home, I went a little overboard in the Pink Department with her present.  :)

I wanted to share how I made the picture frame pillow that I gave her.  It was very easy once I figured out what to use to hold the picture. :)  It makes a very cute and unique gift for those special children or teens in your life.

I have this pillow that I got for a Christmas present from my secret sister a couple of years ago.

I loved having a place to put a picture of the boys on the pillow . . . I thought I could make one myself . . . I just had to figure out where to get the plastic used to hold the picture . . .

And then one day I saw some page protectors . . .

and Voila!  I knew what to do!  Page protectors are the same consistency of plastic that was used on my Christmas pillow!  Yea!

So I used one of Zach's pillows that was the dimensions of the pillow I wanted to make for Taylor . . .

and measured it from seam to seam to make a pattern and added 1 1/4 inches (doubled 5/8) on the two sides for the seam allowances . . .  My pattern measured out to be 17.5 inches by 13.5 inches, including the 5/8 inch seam allowance on all 4 sides.  

Taylor's bed has a black and white striped dust ruffle and I just happened to have some black and white material and pillow stuffing -- so that worked out great! 

I cut out two pieces of the black and white material using the pillow pattern I made.

I cut out a plastic piece from the page protector that measured 4 3/4 inches by 6 3/4 inches . . . just the right size for a 4x6 picture.  I pinned the plastic cut-out to the center of the pillow front piece . . . but just a little lower from the top of the pillow than center . . . That may not make sense . . .  Here's a picture:

I'm a little "nutty" about keeping things symetrical, but I tried to not get too crazy when making this pillow.  If you notice the plastic picture holder is off center in this picture, don't worry cause I fixed it before the finished product by trimming the right side a little. :-D

I sewed around the plastic picture holder on 3 sides with a straight stitch and then went back around the 3 sides using a zig zag stitch. 

I then got one of my super sweet friends (thank you Christy Carol) who has a magic machine at her house to magically put Taylor's name on the pillow . . .  in hot pink!   (Also part of Taylor's color scheme in her room)

I then stitched the two pieces (front piece and back piece) to each other with right sides facing each other and leaving an area open -- so I can stuff the pillow!

I trimmed the corners and ironed the seams flat and turned the pillow right side out and then stuffed it with the fiberfill stuffing I already had . . .

But the pillow still needed something . . . something girly . . . something frilly . . . something pink!  How about a pink tulle boa!  Look what I found at the local Dollar General:

I thought the pink tulle would add just that extra frilly, girly, pink accent the pillow needed, but I was worried about trying to sew it on the pillow with the sewing machine . . . too bunchy . . . so I carefully hand-sewed the pink tulle boa around the pillow.

It took a while to hand-sew this special trim around the pillow, but I think it was definitely worth it!  I added a picture of Taylor and her brothers and . . .

I was very pleased with how the pillow turned out and equally pleased with how easy it was to make.  I've got plans to make some of these pillows for my boys . . . camouflaged of course.

When I was shopping at the Dollar General I bought a few other items for Taylor and used my cricut to personalize them.   An insulated drinking glass . . .

A black and white diary with her initials . . .

A black and white clipboard with matching tablet . . .

And her intitials on the bottom . . .

I bought a hot pink plastic tub and put her name on it too.  I mean once you get the cricut out, you might as well use it on everything!  Ha!

The plastic tub was plain -- too plain -- even with her name!  So I add another pink/purple tulle boa to the edges of it using the trusty hot glue gun and . . . Voila!

I placed everything in the pink plastic tub and threw in a fancy pen with dangly things on it and the final result was just exactly what I wanted . . . for sweet Taylor . . .

Happy Birthday Taylor Grace . . .

from the Ferrell boys and me!