Pretty Holiday Pillows – Freezer Paper Stencil Tutorial

I just finished up these sweet holiday pillow covers. If they look familiar, it’s probably because you’ve seen these in the latest Pottery Barn Catalog:

Pottery Barn Image

I thought they were cute, but not cute enough to fork over $29 each plus tax and shipping. Since I made covers for pillows I already own, these only cost me about $5.00 total, or the cost of two yards of Wal-Mart fabric. When the holiday season has passed, I’ll just remove the covers and pack them away with my decorations for next year.

These pillows were already on my to do list for the holidays when I wandered over to Creative Little Daisy. Autum has put together a great pillow cover tutorial. If you’re not a seamstress, this is definitely a page to bookmark. Go ahead and check it out, I’ll wait.

Pottery Barn’s pillows were embroidered. Since I don’t have a sewing machine that does embroidery, I decided I’d try to stencil them using freezer paper. Here’s how to stencil:

First, find a font you like and print out a design for your project.

Then, find some freezer paper. It is NOT the same thing as waxed paper. It has a matte side and a shiny side. When ironed shiny side down, the paper will stick to the fabric. When you’re done with your stencil, it can be easily peeled off.

With the shiny side down, place a piece of freezer paper over your design and trace. The freezer paper is easy to see through.

Then, using an exacto knife or a small pair of scissors, cut out your design, being careful to save any of the small interior pieces of the letters.

I stenciled onto a smaller piece of fabric, and then attached it to my pillow cover using a decorative stitch. I cut a piece of fabric approximately 1” larger all around than my desired patch size. Place your new stencil shiny side down on your fabric and press, being careful to adhere all of the edges. Don’t forget to iron on the interior pieces of the letters.

These “Spouncer” brushes work great for applying your favorite craft paint. I bought mine at Wal-Mart.

I used two coats of red paint, and then allowed it to dry for a couple of hours before peeling the freezer paper off.

I turned under the edges 1/2” on each side and pressed. Then I placed the stenciled piece on my pillow cover front and attached it using a decorative machine stitch.

Stitch the front and back of the cover together and you’re done! Don’t forget to check out Autum’s tutorial if you need help making the pillow enclosure.

Linking up to the following fabulous ladies:

The Shabby Nest,