Joy Letter Pillows for Holiday Decor with HEATnBOND® Fusible Interfacing

Spread a little Joy for the holidays with these letter pillows.  Carla Henton from Creatin’ in the Sticks is on the blog today to show you how with HEATnBOND® FUSIBLE INTERFACING and fabric from Blend Fabrics.

Don’t you just love creating Christmas decor?   These letters are so fun to make you will be making them for everyone.  This is just your starting point.  Enlarge your favorite font to make your own letters and spell anything you want.  EnJOY!!!

Joy Letter Pillows

By Carla Henton at Creatin’ in the Sticks

Finished Size- each letter about  9” x 7 1/2”

Joy Letter Pillow Supplies:

Letter patterns – Download the JOY pattern

1 – pkg. HEATnBOND® FUSIBLE INTERFACING Light Weight

HEATnBOND® FUSIBLE Fleece

(optional) 2 pkgs. ½” bias piping (red)

Thread – Aurifil 50 wt.  (#2270)

Fabric:  Snowflake Waltz by Maude Asbury for Blend Fabrics

1 yard for letters – Grand Firs Green Fabric from Blend Fabrics

(Cut 2:  Each letter)

1/3 yard for sides – Dewdrops Wht/Red

(Cut 4:  2 ½” x width of fabric for sides of letters)

Other supplies:

Scissors
Clips and pins
needle
fiber fill for stuffing the pillow
ruler
iron (I love my Oliso Pro)
sewing machine and other general sewing supplies

Optional:  aquarium gravel to weigh the letters for display

For each JOY letter:

Cut 2 letters from fabric, one letter from fusible fleece (cut with the wrong side of the pattern up), one letter from interfacing, one 2 ½” x 1 yard of interfacing, and one 2 ½” x WOF from fabric.  The “O” will need 2 strips of fabric and interfacing.

JOY Letter Pillow Instructions for each letter:

Step 1 –  Fuse the 2 ½” strip of interfacing to the wrong side of the 2 ½” strip of fabric following the package instructions.

The fleece will be on the back of the pillow front letter. Fuse the interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric letter (back) and fuse the fleece to the other fabric letter (front).

Step 2 – If piping is desired, pin and stitch the piping to the front of the fleece-backed letter with a ¼” seam with matching thread. For the “J” and the “Y”, pinch the corners and pin without cutting the seam allowance of the piping.  Part of the seam allowance will be exposed on the finished pillow.  Go slow and the corners will stitch out by pivoting the sewing machine needle at each corner.  The seam allowances will be clipped after all the stitching is complete.  For the “J” and the “O” inside curves, the piping will need to be slightly folded and eased around.

Step 3 – Stitch the interface-backed strip of fabric around the letter.  Trim the excess fabric away (the part that has no interfacing).  Make sure the selvages are trimmed off.  Begin stitching 2” from the end of the strip and on a straight side of the letter.  (start anywhere on the “O”)  Backstitch at the beginning and begin stitching the strip around the letter with the right sides together and ¼” from the edge.   Pivot the sewing machine needle at the corners and slightly stretch the strip to ease around the corners.

Take the stitching slow and make the strip smooth by slightly stretching where needed.  Continue stitching around the letter until about 3” from the start and backstitch.  Remove the letter from the sewing machine and take to the iron.  Press both ends of the strip back as shown to mark where the strip meets and where the strip will be stitched.

For the “O”, the seam will have to be finger pressed while the strip is upright for both the inner and outer strips then pinned.

Pin the strip at the creases and stitch on the line. Trim the extra strip tails to ¼” seam allowance, press, and pin the strip in place.

Stitch the strip to the letter.  With sharp scissors, trim off all corners and clip all curves in the seam allowances up to the stitching.  For the “O”, press ¼” seam allowance on the edge of the inner circle as shown.

Step 4 – Using clips, attach the interface-backed letter to the strip’s right sides together.  For the “J”, start at the top by finger pressing the strip at the corners to mark the placement, the “Y” can be started at any branch by finger pressing the corners to mark the placement of the back letter.  To clip the backing on the “O” fold both “O”s in quarters and finger press to mark the placement of the outside strip.  The inside strip will be hand sewn to the back so there is no need to clip it to the backing.  Stitch ¼” from the edge, starting on a straight side of the “J” and “Y”.  Backstitch at the beginning and end and leave a 3” opening for turning the letter inside out.  The “O” can be turned through the center so there is no need to leave an opening.

Trim off all corners and clip seam allowances on all curves to stitching.

Turn the letter right side out and push out all the corners.

Step 5 – Finish each letter.  The “O” will have to be hand-stitched before stuffing.  Turn it right side out and pin the inner strip to the back of the letter, right sides together, and slip stitch ¾ of the circle to leave an opening for stuffing.

If the pillows are for display only, adding aquarium gravel to the bottom will add weight and make the letters stand up.  Add ¼ cup of the gravel before stuffing with fiberfill.

Stuff the letter with fiberfill making sure to push it into the corners.  A chopstick works well for this.

The opening should be slip-stitched shut once the letter is stuffed with fiberfill.

Make all 3 letters for pure joy.