DIY - Movie Stub Pillow

I'm sure I've mentioned quite a few times that Brian and I saw Wall-e at the theater on our first date. I am a pack rat romantic, and happened to save the ticket. Brian framed it for me with some photos for our first anniversary of dating. So, while I was shopping for fabric for pillows for our couch I saw packs of printable fabric at Hancock & thought it would be great to have the ticket blown up on one. There were quite a few different options for printable fabric, but I used EQ Printables Inkjet Fabric Sheets

because my favorite guy that works there recommended it. It also has the best reviews on Amazon.

First, we scanned the ticket and did a test print on regular paper. We didn't even Photoshop the image, we printed directly from Preview. On the preview we made sure the print filled up most of the page with at least 1/4" border. We followed the instructions on the back of the packet after that. We also cut out 2 pieces of upholstery fabric I already had at 12"x15" to be the pillow front and back. The cotton printer fabric is pretty thin & needs a bit more body.

Make sure you follow all of the steps for colorfastness (I read online that including fabric softener helps). It will still lighten a bit when you rinse it, but I like the softer orange color. I'm not a huge fan of the color orange. I also used a fabric pen to touch up the black writing because my ticket is getting pretty faded.

Once the print was dry (I got impatient & used a hairdryer) we trimmed the edges to 1/4" past the print then ironed that 1/4" under all the way around. Using a ruler to make sure the image was centered we pinned it down to one of the bigger pieces of upholstery fabric. We top stitched the printed piece down to the front piece of the pillow very close the edge, lifting the foot and pivoting on the corners.

We then layered the pillow front and back together with the two good sides of the fabric touching. Leaving a couple inches as a gap we sewed around the two layers half an inch away from the edges pivoting on corners again. Clip off the corners right outside the stitch line any time you turn a corner inside out. Turn the pillow right side out using the gap we left open.

Using the hole we left open we stuffed the pillow using Poly-fil, but you can also use cotton stuffing. My mom then hand sewed the pillow closed with a whip stitch, making sure to keep the stitches as close together as possible to hide the thread. Now Brian and I have a perfect reminder of our first date in our living room. ♥ Mallory

Project by Mallory & Darlene (her mom).