DIY Monogram Pillows with Stripflock

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So remember when I shared the inspiration for our kiddos’ big kid room? Well, things have changed. The quilts we’d based the design around were sold out (boo!) so we have changed up a few things. I’m hoping the room will all done in the next few weeks… but I’m also a wishful thinker ;) One of the big changes is ditching the emerald and going with a mint and navy palette… and painting their room the light grey colour they have on the top half right now (I’ll be sad to see the two toned walls go!). That being said- we’re embracing some fun colours for pillows on their big kid beds and these are the first! These pillows were totally inspired by the monogram line of throw pillows at The Land of Nod but I wasn’t in love with the E one, and throw pillows are always something I feel like I can DIY for less. We’re yet to finish the beds, so they’re hanging out as snuggle pillows where they like to read and Aubrey especially is such a fan of hers. What I really love about these is that the letters are stripflock- like that fuzzy stuff you get on vintage tees. It’s so soft and cozy and looks high end compared to paint. The best part? It is iron on!

I actually found Aubrey’s pillow on sale for $16 (score!) and added the monogram to that. Emmitt’s I sewed using my envelope pillow cover tutorial in a super soft denim. I like that the bold monograms coordinate, but they’re completely individual to each of them. The E is a font I love and the A is hand lettered by me! I’ll give you the quick rundown on both here if you’d like to make your own (and who wouldn’t?! I want one for every room in my house!).

Here’s what you’ll need to make your own:

• Pillow covers and forms (you need to be able to take the pillow out)
• Stripflock Heat Transfer Vinyl (Mine is from Expressions Vinyl and it worked perfectly!)
• Cricut Explore Air, other cutting machine or some patience and a craft knife
• Iron
• Tea Towel

Start by deciding on the letter and style of type you want for your pillow. For the E, I used a font called True North (it’s the same one I used for those rad Father’s Day Cards!). Cricut lets you use all the fonts you own- so that one was crazy simple. The A was hand lettered by me and then scanned in which made it a bit more time consuming- but I’m so happy with the result. If you happen to be trying an A as well- you can use my image. If not- I just scanned it in by taking a photo with my phone and then in photoshop increasing the contrast allllll the way and decreasing the brightness a bit to fill in the blank. Then I used the magic wand to select the A and inverse the selection to delete the rest. Save it as a PNG to easily upload to your Cricut Design Space. When you add your own image, save it as a simple file and a cut only image (no need to preserve details for printing on this one!). Then stretch it out to the size that you like.

Then cut out the stripflock heat transfer vinyl on your machine! Or, if you don’t have one (I didn’t until this spring!), print it out on standard paper and use as a template to cut around. When you have it cut out, place it with the clear shiny sheet side up (this will peel off to reveal your fuzzy goodness), lay a tea towel overtop and iron it on. It’s recommended to heat the fabric with the iron before placing your transfer- but other than that it works just like regular iron on. Wait until it’s completely cool (I maaaybe rushed it a bit… with no consequence) to peel off the clear plastic and reveal your monogram. I was so impressed with how easy it was to use! I’m already thinking of all the things I want to make with the leftover bits of this stuff. Now I just have to find the time ;)

I really loved how quick these monogram pillows were. One nap got me a pillow cover sewn and two of these babies designed and ironed on. Not bad, right?! Have you ever used iron on vinyl? What about the stripflock? Am I just behind the times, learning about this stuff now?