The Homeless Finch: The Sweetest Days of St. Valentine Series: Re-Cycled Valentine Heart Pillow

The pink is the pillow getting ready for the makeover.

This past weekend, two of my neighbors were having yard sales. I picked up quite a few things for pennies. I saw a sweet little pink pillow and immediately thought Valentine's Day. The pillow had tiny, subtle dark pink and white stripes and a few gathered pieces. But I thought it could use more and I knew I could add a little pizazz of my own.

I am always looking for throw pillows at neighbor's yard sales, because I know whether the pillow has been in a pet free environment. This matters to me because my teenage son has horrible allergies. Even if I throw a pillow cover in the wash, the pillow form itself gets to him if it's been in a house with a cat.

Today, I sat down for a few minutes to spruce up this pillow. Remember these from my 25 Days of Christmas and Holiday Series?

Well, I still have some red sweater leftover and, you guessed it, I decided to use it on this project. I thought it would make a wonderfully cozy looking bright red heart for the front of the pillow. I took the leftovers out along with my spare fabric from my Kitchen Cabinet Becomes an Open Shelf Makeover. Remember that post? Woodsy is still sitting on that shelf. He loves it there next to Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook.

Anyhoo...I knew that since I was going to be cutting a shape out of the sweater, it was going to need some type of backing to stabilize it. The black checked fabric that I used in the open cabinet still had some Mod Podge dried to the back, but this didn' deter me. I knew it would work regardless.

I first cut out a paper heart the size I wanted. I faced the fabric and the sweater wrong sides together and before cutting the fabrics, I stitched a heart using the paper heart as my guide.

After the heart was stitched, I cut it out. I did it this way because I knew it would be easier since the sweater material, now stabilized by the checked fabric, would then be able to keep it's shape.

I then used a satin stitch on the outer edge of the applique to seal off the fuzzy sweater edges. I added a little homespun running stitch along the edge of the heart using three strands of white embroidery floss.

I then just simply whip stitched the heart onto the front of the pillow in three places using a red thread. Three snips after Valentine's Day and I can do something else.

Here is my simple, Recycled Valentine Heart Pillow

Do you look for this type of thing when you are shopping at your thrift shops or yard sales? Do you ever notice that the plain pillows are always the ones leftover on sale at your favorite stores? Don't overlook this stuff. For pennies, you can create something that is uniquely yours.

After finishing taking images of the pillow out in my backyard, I placed the pillow on my wicker chair in my studio. My Coco hasn't moved from this spot. Seems she approves too!