And so, when my brain told me I would surely have some down time in these weeks leading up to the 4th - which hasn't exactly played out as I planned, but that will be for another post - I was adamant about getting to some of the must-do ideas I had pinned. When I finished my decorating, it became obvious that I simply "needed" more 4th of July pillows - doesn't everyone? We were trying to squeeze in a trip down to the PB, but just never seemed to find the time and so I decided to do the next best thing - I would knock-off a PB 4th of July pillow cover I had pinned last year.
And, as luck would have it, this thing looked pretty easy!
So off I went to pick up my supplies. But, as usual, I had way too many errands to fit into one day so I decided I would head to HL for all of my crafting needs and, no matter what, I would find what I needed there - no running around to different stores to check out availability and prices!
My first shocker was the fabric. I knew I wanted a linen look but could only find that at HL in decorator fabric - should have run to JoAnns, but time was at a premium! So, after having to re-figure everything, I bit the bullet and just bought it! It is a nice, heavier feel than I probably would have gotten in dressmaker fabric, so I won't even think of how much it cost!
This is my worst nightmare!! I simply DO NOT enjoy having to figure out which way to cut the pieces to get the most out of the fabric let alone the measuring, checking, remeasuring, rechecking - well, you get the idea.
Next came the field of stars. The ones on the PB pillow, quite frankly" were pretty "rough". Some looked like stars and others looked like blobs. Well, PB can get away with that because, well, they're PB and it would look like they meant to do it. But, if I did that (and didn't include a picture of what I was "knocking off"), it would looked like I simply messed up. So as I was perusing the card aisle in the store, I saw a package of star stickers and thought that might be the easiest fix. Of course, figuring how to lay them out so I could get in enough to look O.K. but not have to but another package was a chore. I figured I was just going for a representation because no matter what, I wouldn't be using 50, so I loosened up a bit and was O.K. with the layout after about 8 tries!
Having done stenciling for many years, I knew to paint from the inside of each star out so as not to have the paint bleed under. This was a bit tedious and I also was reminded that on the next one, I am going to add some textile medium so the paint will go a little further.
Pulled up a few stars after the paint dried and was happy with the way this was turning out. I actually thought about stamping the stars after the blue field had dried, but I wanted the stars to be the linen color so this worked out just fine.
The stripes were the most fun. They are varying on the original so I had no problem with the variations in mine.
You know I am NOT a measurer. Even though this looks like a very rustic, primitive design, it is deceiving. I could have just started painting but with the price of this fabric ever in the back of my mind, I didn't want to get to the last stripe and have no where to put it so, I MEASURED. Many times! And still, I kept coming up wrong. Between my eyes and my lack of sleep, this truly could have been an "I Love Lucy" episode but I persevered and got a fairly decent prototype that I am happy with. Now, I have to do this "how many more times?"!!! And then still sew into pillow covers?! Stay tuned.
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