DIY Pillow Ideas – Painted Fall Pillow

5 Materials
$50
1 Hour
Medium

I love the new DIY Pillow that I made with paint and Free Motion Embroidery! I Combined Two Of My Favorite Passions, Art And Sewing. Now I have new Painted Fall Pillows.

I had a lot of big deadlines due last week. As soon as I was done I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to be creative and make something. So I made DIY fall pillows.

I made my pillow using a pillow cover, acrylic paint, and my sewing machine. I used free-motion stitch embroidery to sew in the details.


What is Free Motion Stitch Embroidery?


Free motion machine embroidery is very different from regular sewing. By using a special quilting foot and lowering the feed dogs, you feed the fabric wherever you want to stitch. It’s so much fun because you can move the material in any direction while sewing it on your machine.


A lot of free-motion embroidery is done slowly and perfectly. I love it when it is more free and outside of the lines. Can I just say how much fun this was to make?

Check out the video on how to make my painted fall pillow.s


What You Need to Make Painted DIY Fall Pillows


Pillow Cover – I used the IKEA Gurli pillow cover


Sulky Brown Embroidery Thread (Dark Brown)


Free motion quilting foot for your machine (varies by sewing machine brand)


Mark B Gone Washable Pen


Acrylic Paint – I used Alizarin Crimson, Cad Yellow Medium, Brown, Light Green, Dark Green, and White.


Leaf Pattern (right-click on Leaf Pattern and choose the “Save Link as…” option to download the file.)

You can tell that I use my paints frequently. (Yep, they are a mess!)

How to Make Painted DIY Fall Pillows


I left a link to the photo of these leaves above. Just right-click on Leaf Pattern and choose the “Save Link as…” option to download the file. I resized the leaves and made them larger to about 5″. Once you have done that, print the leaves.

Cut out the leaves individually and arrange them out on the pillow cover.

Place the leaves inside the pillow cover and arrange them in the order you want them. Using a Mark B Gone water-soluble pen, trace the outside of the leaf patterns onto the fabric. The pen is washable. In fact, if you just tap it with a wet cloth, the color will remove immediately.

When you are done, your pillow should look like this.

Place some heavy plastic (I used recycling material) inside the pillow cover. You need this because when you paint on the topside, you don’t want the paint to leak through to the backside.

I love the new DIY Pillow that I made with paint and Free Motion Embroidery! I Combined Two Of My Favorite Passions, Art And Sewing, Now I have new Painted Fall Pillows.

Mix your paints to get the colors you want and loosely paint around the traced lines. I like it when it isn’t perfect. Messy is good.

This is what my pillow looked like after I painted it. Don’t panic, just remember how good this looked when the pillow is done, (I posted another photo since you might have forgotten.)

See, it looks much better with the stitched embroidery.

Once the pillow is dry you need to add the machine stitch embroidery. This is what the sewing machine pressure foot looks like. To stitch the flowers, place your printed leaf nearby and stick the veins of the leaf as seen in the photo, The good thing is that this does not have to be perfect. I like it better if it’s not perfect.

Can you believe the difference between the painted only leaves and the stitched leaves?

Here is a closeup. See what I mean about it is messy? It’s a good thing. I wasn’t kidding.

This is what the pillow looked like after stitching. Iron the pillow afterward to flatten out the pillow cover.

This is our dining room. You can see that I got my inspiration from all of the florals I got from Amazon Home.

I love this pillow so much! And it was not hard to make.

Here are two other pillows I made with paint and free motion stitch embroidery.

How to Make a Free Motion Embroidery Stitch Pillow


I Recently Discovered Free Motion Embroidery And I Love It! I Combined Two Of My Most Favorite Passions, Art And Sewing, And Created This Painted And Embroidered Pillow.

Easter Pillow Decor DIY


I love this painted pillow so much, Adding the free motion embroidery makes it amazing.


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Need to get your home ready for fall? Click the photos below to check out these great fall decor items. The four pictured below are all under $20!


I love copper accents and they combine so beautifully with fall colors. Below are some of my favorite copper pieces to use for fall.


Here are some of my favorite throws and cozy blankets to keep you warm on crisp fall mornings and evenings.


The easiest and least expensive way to add fall to your decor is with faux foliage. There are so many incredible options that look great and the prices are amazing! Check these out!


These fall items just make me happy. How cute would this wagon look filled with pumpkins? Happy Fall!


If you don’t have time for a DIY, check out these fabulous fall items you can buy.

Pin the image below to your Craft or fall decor boards on Pinterest (just click the Pin button in the top left corner). You can also follow along with me on Pinterest!

For more real-time updates, follow me on Instagram @My100YearOldHome

ABOUT LESLIE

Welcome to My 100 Year Old Home. I started my blog so I could share my passion for entertaining, décor, cooking, and crafts. You will find all this and more right here. Read more…

Suggested materials:
  • Embroidery Thread
  • Washable Pen
See all materials
My 100 Year Old Home
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Frequently asked questions
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  1 question
  • Cee51897745 Cee51897745 on Sep 27, 2021

    So…the acrylic paint is washing machine safe, right?

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  • Emmawilliams1 Emmawilliams1 on Sep 20, 2023

    Love the luck!! , but in the heading says $50.00 How many pillows did you do? Did something similar. Bought beautiful Fall pumpkin and Hello Fall pillow covers. Back side plain, so I acrylic hand painted leaves on backside. Turned out quite nice. 4 pillows project $8.00 for 4 covers and had {like you} messy paint from so many projects but who care, shows we are busy and not bored as many of my friends are. 😘😇

    • My 100 Year Old Home My 100 Year Old Home on Oct 05, 2023

      That's amazing Emma! It's taking into account if you don't have some of the material- it's always hard to estimate as I have most of the craft items needed!

  • Emmawilliams1 Emmawilliams1 on Oct 06, 2023

    Wasn’t being critical. Curious how many and me being frugal, don’t waste a thing. I get criticized a lot for being so frugal but enjoy making silk from a pigs ear. Enjoy ! Life is short . 😇

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