DIY Birdcage Pillows

So it's been a month.  Whoops.  In all honesty, I've been doing a lot of baking, and not a lot of sewing, but this project was the most fun I've had in awhile.

Again, I can't have a project without a ridiculous back story, so here goes:

I finished my kitchen...well, finished is a strong word.  For now, my kitchen makes me happy.  I cannot however speak to how it will make me feel next month, or really next week.  Anyway, with my kitchen "done" I decided I no longer was happy with my bedroom.  Originally, I was going to just change up my bedding so that it still matched my furniture...BUT then I found colors I liked more and paint styles I wanted to try, so you get the idea.  The whole thing's getting changed.  These pillows are fun, bright accent.

DIY Birdcage Pillows

In my quest for inspiration for my "new" bedroom, I found these pillows from Pottery Barn, which were $29 per pillow cover.  Way out of my budget.

I decided to make them.

I bought:

White cotton fabric

Fabric paint (I used Tulip Soft Fabric Paint in matte)

Some decent paintbrushes (It's been awhile since I did any detail painting)

I already had on hand:

Coordinating fabrics and trims

Pillow forms

Wax paper

Painter's tape

You'll also need:

Printed bird cage images 

(I just did a Google search and stretched them to 8.5"x11", it's okay if they're blurry, so long as you can make out the shapes)

These were mine:

Step 1:

Cut out your fabric.  I cut mine into 12" by 12" squares because I wanted to border them in fabric to fit my pillow forms.

Step 2:

On your work surface (a.k.a. my kitchen table), use painter's tape to affix things in this order:

First: Bird cage graphic

Second: Wax paper

Third: Fabric (make sure the birdcage is in the center of the fabric square)

Step 3:

Paint away!  This brought me back to the joy of high school art class (shout out to the best art teacher ever: Mrs. Casey!) I know, I know, technically it's plagiarized work, but it was still fun.

All three finished:

Finally, turn them into pillows!  I bordered mine, and then added trim, but you could just do trim, or no trim...ahhh the possibilities are endless!

(The third pillow is spending some quality time with the seam ripper, because SOMEONE was a moron and miscalculated the borders.)

This fabric painting is kind of addicting, so I have a feeling there's going to be a few more projects with it.