Make a French Poetry Valentine's Pillow

When I saw Days of Chalk and Chocolate's gorgeous Valentine's pillow, I had to have one.

I really liked the "love note" pillow on the right, but I loved the "oops" pillow! Why can't my oopses turn out like that?  Mine always have to go into the trash.

Checking out Jenny's instructions, it sounded pretty easy.  Of course, I had to make a few changes to make it my own.  She used red felt to make the ruffle, but I had some red cloth left over from my chevron hearts pillow and French postcard pillow that I put to use.  I also decided to stay with the French-y theme, so I chose a French love poem by one of my favorite authors, Victor Hugo.  I used Google translator to read it in English first to make sure it wasn't a sad - or even dirty - poem before I decided for sure:)

Materials I used to make this pillow:



white cotton canvas (duck) fabric
red fabric
matching thread
black Sharpie marker
hot glue
filler for pillow

As I previously stated, I first found a poem I liked.  The one I used is called Aimons Toujours! Aimons Encore! which, when translated, is Love Always! Love Still!  Couldn't have said it better myself.  Before I began to write it, however, I took an old folder (which I recycled), opened it flat, then drew straight lines across it in dark pen ( 3/4" apart) to help me write straight.

After cutting my fabric to the size I wanted (plus an extra 3/4" inch all around for sewing), I laid it on top of the folder.  I could easily see the lines through the white fabric.  Then, using the Sharpie, I wrote the poem on the fabric, moving the fabric as necessary to keep the lines under the fabric where I needed.

If you read French, don't look too closely. I made a few boo-boos, writing one word instead of another and adding an extra letter or two, but I figured most people who come to my house probably don't know French and would have no idea, so no worries.

I set it aside for a few minutes to work on the ruffle. I had to sew two pieces together to make the length I needed, then I ran a straight stitch all the way down the length of the sewn-together fabric, being sure not to backstitch. I then held onto one end of the thread while I pulled the other to ruffle the fabric, trying to evenly distribute the ruffle along the fabric. Once satisfied, I put Fray Check along both sides to keep it from fraying, let it dry, then cut off any pieces of fabric thread sticking out in order to make it look neat.

Next, I hot glued the ruffle onto the front of the hand-decorated piece of fabric and hot glued it in place. I left about 1/2" of the ruffle at the top and bottom. I flipped this piece of fabric over and put it on top of the plain white piece of fabric (the backside of the pillow) and pinned it on all four sides. I sewed it on only three sides at first, but I like to pin all four sides to help hold it in place while sewing.

Once sewed, I trimmed the extra ruffle fabric on what will now be the inside of the pillow, removed the pins, and flipped it right side out. I stuffed it, then turned a small amount of fabric (on the open side of the pillow) inward for sewing.

I pinned and sewed it closed...done! I then added it to my other Valentine pillows on the sofa.

I am really please with how all of the Valentine's Day Pinterest projects turned-out.

If you missed the DIY decorative LOVE letters, visit this post.
If you missed the "I Love You" button heart picture, go here.