Tag Archives | shabby chic

You’ll Love This Button Heart Pillow!

By Nancy Nally on April 1, 2017 in Home Decor

Buttons are a great embellishment for home decor projects – especially pillows! On my button heart pillow project, I used some gray buttons to create the third shape in a trio of hearts.

Supplies Used for Button Heart Pillow:

Buttons Galore “Silver Gray” Button Basics
Canvas Fabric – 17″ x 36″
Cotton Fabric Scraps – approximately 10″ x 10″ and 6″ x 6″
16″ Pillow Form
Die Cut Machine (optional)
Therm O Web HeatnBond UltraHold Iron-On Fabric Adhesive (optional)
Fabric Marking Pencil
Needle & gray thread
Sewing machine (optional but preferred)

This button heart pillow project utilizes on of our versatile Button Basics bags of buttons. These bags contain approximately 150 two and four hole buttons between 1/2″ – 7/8″ in size, and come in a variety of colors. The beautiful color used today is Silver Gray, a lovely neutral shade of medium gray.

How to Make a Button Heart Pillow:

To start your button heart pillow, cut a piece of canvas fabric to 17″ by 36″ in size to serve as your pillow cover. This pillow cover is made using the envelope method, so it is removable to wash, clean, or to replace the pillow form.

Next select two fabrics, one for the large heart and one for the small heart. Cut the fabric to the sizes indicated in the supply list. Then, following the package instructions, iron the Therm O Web HeatnBond to the back of the two pieces of fabric. (Skip this step if you are going to hand cut your hearts and then sew them onto your pillow)

To cut out the heart shapes, there are two options. One is to create the hearts on your electronic die cutting machine and cut them out of the fabric that way. (That is what I did.) The other option is to draw them and cut them out by hand.

Place the hearts so the design they create is centered approximately vertically and horizontally on the canvas fabric. Iron them to adhere with the iron on adhesive. (Or pin in place and then sew them on if you are using that method.)

Next, draw or die cut and trace a third heart shape to serve as the outline for the button heart. Using a fabric marking pencil, trace that heart onto the pillow cover. This heart will serve as the lines to follow for placing buttons.

Hand sew buttons along the line of the heart design, keeping them centered on the traced line. Use smaller buttons at the angled parts of the heart, to avoid the buttons being too close together and making the lines indistinct.

After the buttons are completed, fold over and hem the short sides of the fabric so that the raw edge of the fabric is on the side away from the hearts. Lay the fabric out with the design facing up. Measure 15.5″ across the front of the design on the long axis of the fabric, centering the measurement on the design. Put a pin in the fabric on each side of the design where the 15.5″ extends to.

Using the pins as your fold lines, fold the long edges of the pillow in over the design to make a square. They should overlap, forming the opening that will let the pillow form in and out. Pin and then stitch a 3/4″ seam along the raw edges.

Clip the four corners, and turn the pillow cover right side out. Insert a pillow form and you are done!

(If you need more instruction on how to assemble an envelope pillow cover, there are plenty of great tutorials available for searching on Pinterest.)

This simple design can be adapted to plenty of decor styles and colors! In bright colors, it would be perfect for a teenage girl’s room. Do it in Valentine’s Day colors for a seasonal look. What will you heart doing with a button heart pillow?

Napkin Rings with buttons – A Mixed Media Masterpieces Shabby Chic Style

By Melony Bradley on March 12, 2013 in Home Decor, Mixed Media

Mixed Media Napkin Ring Ideas

My love of mixed media runs deep. Very deep. Seldom is there a project that I complete without adding paint, sewn elements, stamped components and especially glitter. When I opened up a delightful assortment of buttons from an ordinary corrugated shipping box last week. my heart leapt when I discovered these fantastic carved wooden buttons from Buttons Galore and More from the Haberdashery line. I immediately started rifling through the remainder of my goodies and discovered these fabric covered Cozy Brads and these amazing camoes.

I grabbed some wooden napkin rings, some Gem-Tac Glue by Beacon Adhesives, some art glitter and some Neopaque paints from Jacquard Products so that I could make these fantastic wooden napkin rings.

Directions to make the napkin rings:

I played with the arrangement several times before coming up with one that suited me. I used the button shank remover to remove the wood shank from the wood carved buttons and the cameos. I also discovered that is could be used to remove the flange from the fabric covered brad.

I carefully sanded the pieces before setting about painting them. I nail file works well with wood napkin rings since it allows you to get inside the ring in order to sand away the rough areas.

Once the front of the wood disks are dry enough and while you are waiting to add additional coats to the napkin rings, use an ornate motif and solvent ink to stamp the front of the napkin rings.

Coat the edges of the disk with some of the gem-tac glue and sprinkle on glitter to give your napkin rings some extra sparkle.

Next arrange your buttons as before and glue down using the gem-tac. I also added an appetizing sentiment stamped with alphabet stamped and solvent ink. I placed the de-flanged cozy brad in the center of the carved wooden brad.

Sewn elements were added in the form of small scraps of hand dyed fabric that were gently stitched and then glued to the rings.

Use Neopaque in black to add a very heavy dry brushed coat to the napkin rings.

Finally, use a generous amount of gem-tac to glue the embellished disk to the napkin ring.

Enjoy your artfully buttoned embellished shabby chic napkin rings!!

Live Life Creatively,

Melony

www.mel-designss.typepad.com

Button Snowball for Home Decor

By Admin1 on November 16, 2011 in Christmas

Button Snowball by Laura Bray

These super simple snowballs, made of buttons, are perfect for a romantic Christmas decor theme. Hang them in your tree, stack them in a bowl, tuck them into a wreath or give them as gifts.

Supplies:

2″ Styrofoam balls (You could use even larger balls and make large, dramatic, snowballs too!)
Hot glue and glue gun
Buttons Galore & More Gold & Silver Grab Bag buttons
White glitter flakes

Instructions:

Using hot glue, apply buttons to styrofoam ball.
Fill in spaces around buttons with glitter flakes to give the snowball sparkle

Tip:

If you want to use the snowballs as ornaments, thread a ribbon through the ball, using a long doll needle. Be sure to add the ribbon before gluing on the buttons!