Autumn No Sew Pillows

Hi Friends! I’m so happy to be back at The Ribbon Retreat today! I hope y’all are having a great Fall.
I love this time of year – cooler weather (even in Texas!), football games, egg nog and hot chocolate, and falling leaves. 🙂

I don’t have a ton of autumn decorations at my house, so I wanted to make a couple of cute pillows to put in the family room. I’ve mentioned this before – I don’t sew!! So to make pillows, I cheat a little. 🙂 I use placemats!! I unstitch a small hole at the bottom and stuff it with batting.

Here’s how I made Autumn No Sew Pillows for my family room:

Supplies:

*Riley Blake, A Fat Quarter in Tangerine
*Riley Blake, A Fat Quarter in Grass
*Riley Blake, A Fat Quarter in Cream
*17″ HeatnBond Ultra Hold
*2 Placemats (I used these placemats from Pier 1…I love the gratitude script! Perfect for Thanksgiving.)
*Pumpkin and Leaf Template (I found mine HERE and HERE.)
*Pencil
*Scissors
*Iron
*Glue Gun and Glue Sticks

First, I placed the cream fabric over the pumpkin template. I just traced the middle section and the two sections next to the end pieces (does that make sense?). If you count the sections, beginning from left to right, left being #1, I traced 2, 4, and 6.

These pieces were cut out and put to the side.

Next, I placed the pumpkin and leaf patterns on top of the tangerine fabric, traced and cut them out.

Instead of sewing the leaf and pumpkin to the placemat, I used HeatnBond to attach them. After cutting your template (leaf, pumpkin, and 3 pumpkin pieces), cut a piece of HeatnBond to just a little bigger than the fabric. Turn your fabric over, and place the HeatnBond on top, paper side up. With an iron set to medium, iron the HeatnBond onto the fabric. (I put an older towel down to protect my work surface.) Trim off the excess HeatnBond, and peel away the paper.

When making the pumpkin, I added the HeatnBond to the cream pieces, peeled off the paper, then ironed them onto the pumpkin. A stem was cut from the green fabric and added to the pumpkin.

Once the paper has been removed, center your fabric onto the placemat. Press the iron on the fabric for about 8 seconds all the way around. If you need to do it a second time, go ahead.

You can leave the placemat like it is now if you want. It would be a cute addition to a Thanksgiving/Fall table. But since I wanted pillows, I kept going. Using a seam ripper, I opened a small hole in the bottom of the placemat. Then it got stuffed like a turkey 😉 with batting (I used an old pillow!). And guess, what? I told you I was a cheater!! I “sewed” the pillow up with hot glue.

And that’s it! I put them in our family room to make things feel a little more cozy and Autumn-like in here.

And the cool thing about this little project is that you can totally make this however you want! You can use all kinds of placemats or pillow forms. Instead of a leaf or pumpkin, you could make anything that goes along with the current holiday (jingle bells, a Christmas tree, a heart for Valentine’s Day or flag for the 4th of July). And, if you sew (lucky you!!), feel free to create your own pillow form and/or sew the pumpkin or leaf to your pillows.

If you would like to see a few more placemat pillow ideas, go HERE for a living room pillow and HERE for a master bedroom pillow. And, if you need ways to decorate your home for Fall for FREE, go HERE.

Awesome, Awesome job Beth! Thank you for being with us today and for sharing how easy it is to create the perfect pillow whether you sew or not. I love the little tricks you used to create a pillow that is perfect for any season or holiday! Thank you Beth…you are amazing!

What a great way to decorate for the holidays or to add to your existing decor. You can add a pop of color or pizzazz with a personalized pillow that you don’t even have to sew…if you don’t want to. 🙂 For more innovative and super fun projects by Beth, jump on over and pay her a visit at Free Stylin’.

The Ribbon Retreat has wonderful fabric just for you, that is perfect to create your leaf, pumpkin, snow flake, tree, heart, flag or whatever image you choose. You will love browsing our fabric and will only run into one problem…choosing!!! 🙂

What image would you place on your no sew pillow?

Happy Creating!!