Kitschy Dog Pillow

Before I get into this tutorial, I wanted to apologize for being MIA for the past few weeks. The holidays took over my life, but I'm happy to share that I'm finally back on track and can't wait to share all sorts of projects! And while I realize the holidays are long gone, I hope you'll indulge me as I share a project I made as a holiday gift...

One of my favorite things about the holidays is making gifts for family and friends. A good friend of mine has a fabulous apartment and is devoted to his french bulldog, so I whipped up this Kitschy Dog Pillow to add to his couch for the holidays.

1. The supplies were really simple: some cotton fabric (white for the front, and red/white stripes for the back of the pillow), green acrylic paint, and red rhinestones.
2. After a quick google search I found a french bulldog silhouette online, so I printed it off and taped it to my light box.
3. Then I placed the white fabric on top of the image, flipped on the light box, and traced the silhouette with a pencil.
4. Once the I had the outline traced onto the fabric, it was ready to paint! To keep the fabric taught as I painted, I taped it to a cereal box- can you tell I'm a fan of raiding the recycling bin for my projects?

Once I had painted the silhouette and let it dry, I sewed the pillow. I simply sewed the wrong sides of the pillow together, and sewed almost all the way around the edge, leaving an opening so I could stuff it later. Then I flipped the project right side out.

But before I could stuff the pillow, I wanted to add a bit of bling... so I grabbed the rhinestones, and using tacky glue and some toothpicks, I glued a "collar" of red rhinestones around the neck of the silhouette.

Once the glue had dried, I filled the pillow with fiberfill and whipped stitched the opening closed... and my friend's gift was complete.

I must admit, my friend loved this very personalized gift. This would make a great gift for any gift lover- the option of personalizing it based on the animal breed makes it a thoughtful present!

Kitschy Dog Pillow SUPPLY LIST
Cotton fabric (white and "holiday"- I chose a simple red and white stripe)
Fiberfill
Thread
Needle
Scissors
Acrylic paint
Paintbrush
Pencil
Animal silhouette
Rhinestones
Glue
Toothpicks