Looking for that something special to add to your holiday decor? Regular Contributor, Michelle James has just the thing–A DIY Holiday Pillow Cover!

Holiday Foil Pillow Cover

A Fun DIY Project To Add To Your Holidays

I am so happy to be back at Life with Lorelai today with a fun holiday tutorial. In the scrapbooking/stamping world, one of the hot trends right now is foil. It is used with heat and bonds to paper, fabric, and other surfaces. I had never used it before, but thought it was about time I got with the program.

I wanted to create some home décor; so, I made an envelope pillow cover and used the foil to create a holiday design.

Create some home décor with a Foiled Envelope Pillow Cover! A perfect #Holiday #DIY project.

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Holiday Foil Pillow Cover Tutorial

Supplies needed:

Drop cloth – pre-washed

Pillow form

Envelope case tutorial from A Curiously Chic Life – she has a great tutorial on creating the actual pillow cover envelope case

Deco foil in red and green

Fusible Adhesive

Iron

Scrap paper

Some sort of tape (washi or scotch)

Holiday stencil

Sewing machine

Scissors for fabric and for paper

(There are different kinds of foil that work with different tools. This is the one that works with the iron and the fabric. It’s always good to try a scrap piece with a scrap piece of fabric first.)

Are you ready to get started?

First, we are going to cut the fabric for the envelope pillow cover. Follow the tutorial and measure accordingly for the size of your pillow form. This is the same tutorial I used for my Guest Room Welcome Pillow Cover, and it was easy to follow.

Then decide where you would like your design to be on the pillow cover (as if it were sewn together). Remember that it is “poofier” when the form is in the case. If you have your design too low when it is laying flat, it may be underneath the pillow when you add the form. So, just be aware of these things.

Before you sew your pillow cover, you want to get the foil design ironed on to the fabric. (I did the design after I had sewn, and you can see where I had a slight mishap. The bottom of the lower, red snowflake did not adhere like the rest of the design. This will be avoided if you get the design on before you stitch it up. Also, the green foil on the snowflake was a little wrinkled. I think this happened because it was between the two edge seams, and it didn’t get the proper pressure needed. Lesson learned!)

Lay your fabric down, and place your stencil on top. Tape it down, so it doesn’t move. I made my stencil using the Cricut Machine and the Doodlecharms template. I used the snowflake design. All three snowflakes cut out together, so it makes a great stencil. I also cut mine out on a scrap of Cricut vinyl. Since it has the sticky back it helps to keep it in place on the fabric.

I did not photograph this part, but I taped scrap pieces of printer paper on all four sides of the stencil to avoid over-spray onto the rest of the fabric. I covered all of it.

Then, shake up the spray adhesive. Keeping it fairly close to the fabric, spray it over the stencil. I went over it about 4 or 5 times. It looks like snow. Remove the stencil and the extra paper scraps.

Grab a piece of red foil and a piece of green foil. Cut pieces of the foil just big enough to cover different areas of the design, and place them pretty side up onto the adhesive. Be sure there are no bumps or seams under your fabric.

I set my iron to the cotton/linen setting, then placed the iron on top of the foil. I stayed in one place about 10-seconds, then moved the iron to a different spot for another 10-ish-seconds. I kept going until I knew I had ironed and heated the entire design.

This next part is the hardest part of all. Walk away from the project for at least an hour maybe two. It has to be COMPLETELY cool before you peel the foil.

When it is cool, you can peel off the foil off the pillow cover. Start slowly with one piece. If you start to see a lot of it is not sticking, then go over the whole design again with the iron. Then, walk away again!

Hopefully, this won’t happen, but it did to me. And, when I finally got to peel away the foil, it looked good. (Except for that one spot, Grrrr!)

After you have your pretty design ironed onto the fabric, you can finish sewing the envelope cover. Then, insert your pillow form into the pillow cover and …voila! You have a beautiful piece of décor that will last through the holiday season and for years to come.