Pillows! Do we ever have enough? They’re enjoyable to make and a marvelous way to update your décor without spending a lot of money. I’m totally smitten with the Heart Pom-Pom Pillows I found on the Tater Tots and Jello blog. They combine three things that I dearly love – hearts, burlap and pom-poms! Jen made her pillows as a Valentine project and used solid red and white felt for the dimensional hearts. If you’d like to make your Heart Pom-Pom Pillows season-less, use colors that accent your décor rather than red and white. Using a geometric shape such as circles, squares or triangles would make appealing, eye-catching pillows, too. You’ll also need burlap for the main portion of your pillow, a pillow form and pom-poms in a coordinating or accent color. I love the size of pom-poms used in the samples – they really make the pillows “pop”! You’ll need to draw a heart in the size you want for your pillow(s), but don’t stress over perfection. The charm of handmade is not having everything perfect and you can see how cute the hearts look even if they’re not quite even. Jen’s pillows are made as covers using an envelope closure. She’s included a link to a helpful video on how to make the “envelope” that you’ll want to be sure and view. I love this method! It’s a great upcycling way to make covers for pillows you already own rather than using newly purchased pillow forms. Sometimes your pillows look tired but the form itself is still in good shape, so this is a way you can give an oldie a new updated life. Jen laid her hearts out in a grid and adjusted the arrangement until it looked pleasing. If you’d like to be more precise, you could measure from the top to the bottom of your burlap piece, make a mark at center, and do the same from side to side so that you have the exact center. Pin your first heart there, then measure and mark the distance you’d like to space out each heart and each row. Once marked, you can pin your hearts to the markings and you’ll be ready to stitch. The Heart Pom-Pom Pillows look so awesome together with one small heart grid version and the other stitched with just one large heart in the middle. The small hearts are double layers and the large heart has a triple layer. That makes a really delightful pair. I think it would be fun to cut several more gradating sizes of hearts for the single heart pillow for more dimension, too. Play around and see what you think! If you haven’t used pom-pom trim before, it’s an easy way to add a perky accent to lots of different projects, so keep it in mind when you’re project planning. I’ve used pom-poms around the edge of Christmas tree skirts, placemats, table cloths and napkins and they’re adorable edging the hem of a little girl’s dress, skirt or top. Of course, now you know how charming they are around the edge of pillows, too! Click here for Jen’s Heart Pom-Pom Pillow tutorial on her Tater Tots and Jello blog and pom on!
