Christmas Tree Pillows

I got the idea for this craft when I saw a similar pillow in a Ten Thousand Villages store. I decided to make one for my sister (who had asked for pillows for Christmas to go with her new couch) and one for myself.

Here's a little picture tutorial on how to make your own Christmas Tree Pillow!

  First, pick out some fabric. I chose to use different green holiday fabrics for the trees with a plain red background, but pick out your favorite tree fabrics even if they are  "painted pink" the way Lucy van Pelt prefers. I also bought a black with white snowflake print that I thought would make a neat background.
Then start cutting out triangles. Try different sizes to create a visual depth for a forest, or try skinny and fat ones; it all depends on what size your pillow is. In the picture to the right, the blue squares are 1in.; I wanted my trees tall and skinny to fit on my long pillows.

Once you have enough trees for your pillow, cut out and apply Heat'n'Bond to the backs on the fabric to create an easy application of the trees to the background. Arrange the trees on the background and start ironing on the bottom layer first. I laid the trees out before peeling off the paper backs, then ironed each tree individually. However, you could try peeling off all the papers and ironing it all at one time. Also, I would recommend you take a picture of your layout before you start ironing, just in case you need to go back to it for a reference. (Maybe you get distracted from ironing with my blog and your kids or pets go over and move things around on you... or maybe I'm just a little o.c.d.)

After all the trees are ironed on, I reinforced them by sewing along the edges. I thought that this would keep the trees on better through multiple washings, while the edges could fray a little and add some nice texture.
    

Now the front of the pillow is ready!

Add whatever style back you like and you're all set.

  For the smaller pillow (the one pictured at the top), I put a zipper up the side and found some fun pom-pom trim to go around the pillow case. And I had a Christmas present for my sister -

For my pillow, I used white ribbon all the way around and, rather than try my luck with another zipper, I left the middle of the back open to fit the pillow into.

So now do you feel ready to make your own? If you do make one, share a picture with me; I'd love to see it!

I have a bit of extra fabric that I'm thinking about sewing into a Christmas quilt... maybe for next year.