Bo Bunny...Pillow Talk! being pubbed

Today's post is a bit of a long one and I apologize ahead of time. If I had not lost my voice, you would have had a video to watch, but instead I have a rather long, but hopefully detailed picture tutorial for you.

I will be sharing with you some fun stamping techniques and how to make paper cloth. My finished project is a fun little pillow I created using these techniques! You can stop with the initial stamping ideas if you aren't into making a mess or sewing, for a fun way to personalize and create your own background papers.

As for the paper cloth, it is a type of cloth created using muslin, white glue and tissue paper and other thin papers. I decided to try to create my own version of it using Bo Bunny papers, instead of tissue paper or thinner papers. The thicker papers make the finished product less flexible than your traditional paper cloth and therefore it does not bend quite as easily. However, it still bends enough to work for this project.

The finished pillow is about 14 x 14 inches.

Supplies:
Bo Bunny Patterned Paper:
Kitchen Spice, Flutter Butter Burst, Tis the Season Stripe, Persuasion My Sweet, and Kitchen Spice Sesame

Bo Bunny Double Dot Ribbon: 26 inches of each color
Almond, Chocolate, Aquamarine, and Orange Citrus

Bo Bunny Stamps:
Stamp & Store Urban, Elements, Journal and Circle This Date
Clearly Stamps Harmony, What U Got Cookin', and Sunburst

Other supplies:
Ink - brown, black, and a clear pigment ink for embossing
Embossing powder
Heat gun
Sewing Machine
Muslin (about 20 x 20 inches)
Another piece of fabric (coordinating with your colors, about 20 x 20 inches. I used a poly-cotton blend, but a thicker fabric might work better.)
Mod Podge
Foam brush
Wax paper
Pillow stuffing

For starters we are going to start with some stamping. I choose 5 Bo Bunny papers with mostly solid colors that I wanted to use for my pillow. I then choose an image that I wanted to stand out and stamped it using a clear Versamark ink in random places on the papers. I then added gold embossing powder to that image and heat set it. Then I went to town stamping other images in either black or brown ink in a random pattern all over the paper. Here are a couple of examples of how I stamped the images. I repeated this process for each paper, varying the stamped images for a different look. (You can click on the images below to see it larger.)

First you will cut your stamped papers into strips and squares to create a quilt pattern type image once they are all placed together.

The large squares are 3 x 3 inches, the rectangles are 1.5 inches x 4.5 inches, the long strip is 1 x 12 inches and the small square is 1 x 1 inch. In the next two photos you will see all of the pieces I cut out.

I did make a mistake as noted in the photo.

Next begins the messy part...creating the paper cloth. You will use the wax paper to protect your work space. So lay down a couple pieces to get the area covered well.

Next you will lay your piece of muslin on top of the wax paper.

Now we get messy....

Paint the muslin, starting in the center, with Mod Podge, using a bit of water as needed to thin the glue. You can premix this ahead of time if you like. I just dipped my foam brush in the water occasionally as needed.

Once you have an area started, add your center square.

You will continue to add your cut pieces...

and add your cut pieces...

until you have completed the design.

Next you will begin stitching around each piece. I recommend using a zig-zag type stitch. I also recommend back stitching at the beginning and end of each length of stitching you do.

Once you have sewn around all of the pieces, you will add the ribbon to the edges of the pillow top. You want to just barely overlap it on the paper. Again use a zig-zag stitch.

Make sure to leave about 6 inches of ribbon overhanging on each end. You will use these to tie the bows on each corner.

(The overlapped ribbons.)

The finished sewn pillow top.

Now we will begin to create the rest of the pillow. I made this pillow using the standard pillow technique placing the outside materials inside, sewing around the edge, leaving a large opening and then turning it inside out. The turning it inside out was rather tricky and it is what I did here, but I think next time will just use the ribbon edging to hide my stitching a go with sewing them together on the outside so as to avoid the stress to papercloth of turning it inside out.

Now when you start to sew the pieces together, the ribbon trim will get in your way. I used masking tape to hold it out of my way. I recommend, laying the tape on some fabric before sticking it in place to make it a little less sticky.

Next, pin the two pieces of fabric together.

Remember to leave an opening along one side and to back stitch very well at each corner.

Stitching along the edge with about a 1/4 inch seam.

I originally stitched about 1.5 inches in on each side of the opened side however I recommend that you leave the entire side open. It will make life easier for you if you choose this method.

The pillow has been turned right side out, after a bit of time and patience. Again not so sure about this way of putting the pillow together. But it did work!

Stuff the pillow with filling.

Once you have begun to stuff it, you will want to start hand stitching the open side closed. This was another tricky part, but again it worked. Continue to gradually add stuffing until the pillow is stuffed as you would like and then sew the entire side closed.

Finish your pillow by tying the ribbons on the corners.

I hope this tutorial was helpful and that it made sense. If you have questions, please let me know!
And if you decide to create one of these yourself, or are inspired in any way to create something from this post, I would LOVE to see it!!!

Thanks for stopping by!