This post has been one that I have been meaning to get up for a while! We made these adorable DIY farmhouse grain sack pillows back in February. Wow, how time flies! Anyway, I am happy to be getting the tutorial up now for you all! 🙂

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These pillows were inspired from an amazing seller on Etsy. Unfortunately, her shop is no longer open so I have taken the link down to it. I knew we could make them ourselves so I thought we should give it a try. Now you will be able to as well! 🙂

For this project you will need:

• Cricut (or Silhouette) and associated tools
• Clear Contact Paper
• Canvas Drop Cloth Fabric
• Gray Spray Paint
• Cutting mat, rotary cutter and 24″ ruler – this is optional, you can just use scissors to cut your fabric but this makes cutting fabric so much easier!
• Sewing machine (this is a newer version of the one I use)
• Thread
• Dressmaker pins
• Pillow inserts – I use the Fdjrarar down pillow inserts from Ikea
• 14” & 18″ zippers (if making a zippered pillow cover)
• Scissors & Pinking Shears

The first thing you will need to do is cut some panels for your pillows. If you need help on the actual pillow sewing portion, I highly encourage you to first read my zippered pillow tutorial. It will walk you through the steps on how to make a pillow cover and how to easily sew in a zipper on your pillow. Zippered pillow covers are so much better than envelope pillows IMHO. No gaping backs! 😉

The sizes of my pillow inserts are 20×20″ and 16×26″. I like my pillow covers to fit more snugly so those measurements are also what I cut my fabric at. If you like yours to fit more loosely, you can add 1″ to both sides of the measurements. For example, cut it 21×21″ instead.

You can make these pillows with or without patches, but the patches are why I loved them so much! I love the scrappy look of the pillows and they fit into farmhouse decor so well. I cut some different sized squares and rectangles out of the drop cloth fabric to make the patches. Just from looking at the pictures of the pillows on Etsy, I estimated on the size of the patches and cut an assortment of sizes.

The width of my patches were between 1.5 to 3.5″, cutting some at every .5″ increment. I cut varying lengths so I had some short and long strips to choose from when laying them out on my pillow.

We tried to match the font they use at With Lavender and Grace because I like it so much. It is actually the same font as I have in my logo, that is how I knew what it was and loved it already! I figured out approximately how big I wanted the words to be on the pillow and printed out some different sizes on regular paper to choose from. Then I played around with the paper and the patches to see how I wanted the end product to look. I took some pictures so I would know how the patches needed to go on later. We saved the printed out word/number designs as we used them to assist with placing the stencils for painting.

After I picked the size of the font I wanted, Mr. Wonderful made up the stencils. Using your Cricut (or other cutting machine), print out the stencils on clear contact paper. We do not have a tutorial for that part as we figure if you have a Cricut, you know how to use it. 😉 If not, there are lots of You Tube videos available to show you how to make a stencil. Here is the file you can save with the designs for the stencils. You can also use this file to print the words out to use for placement.

Using the printed words, we laid them out to figure out our placement. We were trying to place our designs directly in the center of the pillow so we eyeballed it first. Later when applying the stencil, we measured to make sure it was in the center.

After you have the words where you want them, lay your stencil on top of the word and measure it from each side and from the top and/or bottom to make sure it is straight and centered. Mr. W made some marks on either side of the words on each stencil so we could easily measure from these marks.

When it is lined up, slide out the printed word from underneath and cut off just a small portion of the backing to stick that down to the fabric. This makes it easier to make sure the whole design is lined up on each side. Stick down the small portion and when the placement is perfect, remove the rest of the backing and stick it down completely.

Using a brayer, we made sure the stencil was firmly sticking to the fabric. You could also do this with a credit card if you don’t have a brayer.

Repeat these steps with all the words, making sure you keep the same distance between the words. If your stencil does not cover the fabric completely, use some blue painter’s tape to cover the strip in between like we did in the picture below. Also, don’t forget to add the insides of the letters!

Before painting the stencil, you will want to completely cover the exposed fabric so you don’t get paint on it. We have access to x-ray film and it works great for this purpose, but you could also use some thin cardboard or even plastic bags. We taped the film down around the stencil and laid some wood pieces on top to make sure there was no bleeding of paint underneath.

Since the pillows are farmhouse style, we did not want to cover with words with lots of paint. I wanted them to be lighter in color and a little splotchy to give off a vintage look. To achieve this, Mr. Wonderful sprayed them from high above and did a couple very light coats of gray spray paint. Actually it was primer because that is what we had around but it was the perfect color and worked well. 🙂

Immediately after painting, we took off the stencils. The paint turned out perfect! You will need to remove the insides of the letters. This tool came with our Cricut and it is perfect to do that so you don’t get paint on your fingers.

When the paint was dry, I began placing the patches on the panel.

Using some tiny dressmaker pins, I pinned down each patch so I could sew them down without the patches shifting around. I just eyeballed them when putting them on so they may not be exactly straight but they looked good to me. 😉

The patches were really easy to sew on. I just sewed straight stitches across each side of the patch. I lined up my presser foot with the edge of the patch and followed along it. Make sure to back-stitch at the beginning and end of each side.

The seams intersect each other which I thought would help to keep the fraying of the unfinished edges at bay. You could put some fray check on each edge but I did not do that. I do not mind the frayed edges. Occasionally I have to cut of some strings from the patches. But overall they have worn really well over the last 5 months however I have not washed them yet. When I do, I will do it on a gentle cycle and will let them air dry. 🙂

After all the patches are sewn on, you can finish sewing the pillow together.

Then admire your hard work! 🙂

Below are more recent pictures of the pillows. You can see how the edges have frayed a little bit. I think it just adds to the vintage grain sack feeling of them. They have a very soft, worn in feel as well.

 

I have used these pillows in decorating for several holidays/seasons. If you want to see some decorating ideas using the pillows, check out my valentine’s day decor, spring mantel and most recent neutral patriotic summer mantel. You are sure to see them more in the future too. I also like how they lighten up the dark leather couches a little. I am beginning to see why almost all the other bloggers have light colored couches! It was a little challenging to get good photos of the light pillows on the dark couch. Ha! We have had this couch for a while but it is still the most comfortable couch I have ever sat on. So I don’t think it will be going anywhere anytime soon! 🙂

I think I have a couple other posts that have been lingering out there for a while. I will try to get those done here soon too. Plus I will be sharing some outdoor projects we have been working on so stay tuned! Have a wonderful day!