DIY: 'Paris is Always a Good Idea' Pillow + Free SVG Download

I am always up to help friends when needed and its no different when it's in the crafting department. I mean, heck, I love this stuff, I live for it. As soon as she told me what she wanted made I got the process in my mind and knew I could use it for a DIY so it was a win-win situation.

All over Tumblr you can find the 'Paris is Always a Good Idea' Pillow. Since we could't find it anywhere else, Doing it Yourself was the next best option! 

I loved how this pillow turned out. It makes me want to just make burlap pillows all day. I used an electronic cutting machine for the stencil. An alternative to the Silhouette Cameo is simply a print out and an X-acto knife. 

(Please excuse the photos, in all honestly I was too excited to get my real camera!)

For this DIY you will need:

Silhouette or Printer and X-acto knife

Shelf-Liner vinyl (Dollarama)

Plain Pillow or T-Shirt 

Fabric Paint

(I used screen printing ink)

Foam Brush

Extra Fabric or Silicon/Foam shelf liner 

(to put between fabric layers)

Paris is always a good Idea

SVG silhouette download: Silhouette 

The first thing we did was grab a pillow from Winners/Homesense. Winners is a great place to find pillows at a good price and also for almost one-of-a-kind items.

After creating the design on the the Silhouette Software (or on anything else) just feed the vinyl in the machine to get cut. If you are cutting it manually, secure your piece of paper on top of the vinyl with tape and cut through both pieces at once.  The one thing I realized when doing a second cut for a T-Shirt was to make sure you remove all air bubbles with a credit card so that the vinyl is flat. 

Remove the backing and place on top of the pillow or T-shirt. To get that perfect stencil image on fabric, make sure all the edges are pushed down and remove any bubbles. 

Make sure to stipple the brush onto the fabric. Because I was using burlap to paint on, the best way to get the paint settled is to use the stippling motion. so make sure you are using your foam brush and just dabbing. This will also prevent the edges from peeling back.

Once it is done, let it dry completely. Peel off the vinyl after a few hours. Place a piece of fabric over the design and run an iron over it to really set the paint. 

There you have it!

Happy Crafting

xo

If you don't have your own cutting machine, email me for a quote for a custom one.