Mr. and Mrs. Pillows

I saw some Mr. and Mrs. Pillows on Pinterest {just search for it and a bunch will pop up} and I thought they were pretty cute.  We have a king size bed now and needed some new pillows.  These are perfect - we never forget which side of the bed is ours!

My first task was to make the stencil.  I printed off my Mr. and Mrs. in the font and size I wanted.

{Oh - these instructions are perfect for people without fancy machines that easily make stencils for you! lol}

I used a permanent marker to trace my letters on the shiny side of the con-tact paper.  It's Rubbermaid brand - stuff you'd line your cupboards with.

Use your trusty exacto knife to cut out your letters and voila - you have a stencil!

I made my pillow covers out of drop-cloth fabric {so many uses for that stuff!}.  I just did a simple envelope style - cut a long rectangle and fold the ends in.  Pin it and sew up the sides.  I didn't even need to hem the edge you see - I used the finished edge of the drop-cloth!

My pillow forms came from a thrift store at less than $2 each.  It's so easy to slide into the fabric envelope.

With my pillows made, it's time for the letters.  I peeled the paper off the back side of the stencil and placed the sticky side down exactly where I wanted it.

And then I painted it - use your stencil brush and use small amounts of paint so it doesn't seep under the edges of the stencil.  I should have put a book under the fabric so I could be painting against a firmer surface - the pillow was too soft!

In order to fancy the pillows up a little, I bought some piping to put along the seems.  This was the most expensive part of my project at $0.69/meter - and I needed three whole meters!!!

Don't you love my method for applying it?  I glue gunned it on!!!  Actually, this was just my way to hold it exactly in place.  I did loosely stitch it on too.  Doesn't it just give the pillows a little boost?

There's how much of the three meters I had left.   First I asked for two meters, and as the salesperson had her scissors open and was ready to cut, I yelled "Wait!  You'd better give me three meters."   Great estimate!!!

I'm really loving my new pillows!

Maybe next I'll need to make an ampersand pillow!

There they are!  I wanted my Mr. and Mrs. big enough to easily be seen, but not too overpowering in size.

This is how they usually look - with my bear Mason instead of the ampersand.  My two-year old loves to jump and Mason is much softer for when she bonks her head.

Loving my new pillows - and especially loving the fact that both of them together cost me less than ten dollars!  And . . . I still have my Mr. and Mrs. stencil!!!