Valentine’s Day XO Pillows

I ran across these cute pillows while browsing on Pinterest.

I found out that they are sold by Anthropologie.

Then I found out that they cost $148 per pillow.

Uh, that’s a little out of my price range for a pillow.

So, like any good DIY’er would, I decided to make my own version of Valentine’s Day X and O pillows….

 Anyone else thinking of Nacho Libre? Kiss kiss, hug hug, big kiss, little hug……

I bought a remnant of muslin for a whopping 67 cents. I also bought a couple of pillow covers from Hobby Lobby (on sale for about $4.00 each) and some down pillow inserts (on sale for $12.00 each).

I couldn’t find any pillow covers that were plain and I did not want to sew my own. The pillow covers I chose had a design on the front and a neutral, linen-colored back. I figured that since I would only use these covers for a couple of weeks out of the year, I might as well just use the backs of these.

The front side looks like this….

The first thing to figure out is how to cut the letters out of the muslin. I used the triangle from my son’s geometry set and a ruler to make the “X”. I used one of my platters to make the “O”. I just drew them with a pencil and cut them out.

After cutting out the X and the O, I used my fingernails to fray the edges. I did this step while watching television, which resulted in my shirt and lap becoming covered in threads. This part is a bit messy!

Next, I chose a pink colored thread and sewed a running stitch around the edges of each letter. I tried to keep the stitch length fairly close, but was not overly careful about it. It’s supposed to look handmade.

I pinned the letter in the center of the pillow cover and measured out

some strips of Heat n Bond…..

 

Then I took the strips of Heat n Bond and placed them under the letter (sandwiched between the letter and the pillow cover) and ironed….

 

Easy peasy!

 

 

My husband came home and saw these and said, “Are these like X’s and O’s for the Super Bowl?”

He was totally serious.

But it did make sense because I am a football fanatic.

And the Denver Broncos are my team…..

Go Broncos!