monogram pillow

I never met a monogram I didn't like. I might possibly be obsessed, we have the letter B all over the house, but it's fun and it makes me happy, and my preschool age boys love it too! They like to trace this pillow over and over with their little pointer fingers. :)

Here's the quick how-to for those who would like to try working with an applique!

#1. What you need....

Print out a letter in a font you like and a size you like (I put mine on cardstock).

Felt- any color. Mine is black and the fabric I chose was a natural colored textured fabric. Burlap is cute, but not very cuddly.

Fusible webbing- wonder under or other.

A pencil, some fabric scissors, and an iron.

#2.
Cut out the letter, trace it backwards and upside down onto the fusible webbing. Make sure it's wrong side down, picture it like this, you want the sticky side to be the side that touches the felt, the backing peels off.

#3

Set the paper template aside. Now I'm working with the "B" that was traced from the fusible webbing, NOT the cardstock letter. Do a rough cut, a rectangle or whatever, around the letter you traced onto the webbing. Now it's ready to iron. You don't have to peel anything off for this part, when it gets hot, the adhesive in the webbing will stick to the felt.

#4.
Iron the webbing. Follow the directions on the package, make sure to hold the iron on the webbing for the recommended amount of time.

#5
The next step is to cut around the traced letter. The felt is now adhered to the letter. So felt on one side, the backing of the webbing where you traced is on the other side.
It will look like this when you peel it off. Peel the backing when you're sure that you've cut your letter out as close to perfect as you can get it.

#6
Position the felt letter on the fabric. (It might help to use some spray adhesive to stick it temporarily until it gets ironed on, you will be ironing from the back side of the fabric and it might be hard to tell if the letter has shifted or if it's still centered where you want it).

#7.
Iron from the back side of the fabric. Make sure to leave the hot iron on the area for as long or longer than the directions say. Mine took forever.

#8
Done! You might want to make sure that your applique is adhered everywhere, if not you can re-iron and stick it down good. That's the top part, from there it's just a matter of sewing the pillow cover. I chose to do envelope enclosure back so it can be removed for washing. I change my pillows out so often that it's just not sensible to sew the pillow form all the way into the pillow for me. It's nice to be able to easily change or wash them without loosing the whole pillow or taking it apart.

Enjoy! I have one more of these in brighter colors planned for my other couch, and a few more accent pillows ready to sew as soon as I get the time and energy to get it done! Spring always makes me feel like changing out my pillows.

Happy Monogramming!