Kutz, Paper, Scissors: Little Warrior Appliqued Pillow - Lifestyle Crafts Studio Team Project

Hello!

Today's a very fun day for me - I finished my April Studio Team Project last week and was so excited with the way it turned out, (you know, sometimes my ideas are awesome in my head but pale in reality) I couldn't wait to share it with everyone! And today's the day!

I'm in lurve with this pillow! Yep, seriously, in lurve! Why? Well, because my Little Warrior Appliqued pillow is all about my favorite little guy... Lil A, who is a true warrior.

You may know a little of our story - but if you don't, here's a quick run down...

Lil A was born 2 months premature with a barrage of health issues... so many, to be honest, that I don't remember or understand all of them. A lot of them cleared up on their own, or with medical intervention, and some we're still dealing with or are aware of today... but he was so strong, he was such a good little guy, a happy little guy, who was constantly being poked, pricked, rolled, scanned, suctioned, alarmed, probed and prodded, tested... he fought for the first 2 years to just breath, he is my fighter, my WARRIOR!

It makes me smile and cry when I look at the above photo and compare it to this one...

We are blessed.

I knew I wanted to make an appliqued pillow cover for his month's project and I was playing with the idea of making a spring motif appliqued pillow cover - possibly with flowers or a bunny... maybe flowers and a bunny(!) but I was listening to Lil A one day, he was telling me a story - a very animated story - and I was awed by how fortunate we are, how strong he is today, how I couldn't see an end to the health issues when he was first born and how grateful I am that he is such a fighter. A warrior. And I looked over at him, imagined him with a Native American Headdress and that was that. The Little Warrior Pillow Cover.

I'll share a detailed tutorial tomorrow, but here's a quick run down. I took a photo of Lil A's silhouette, which I then printed, cut out and used it as my pattern for my little warrior's face. I wanted this to be totally personal, something that we could cherish and remember him exactly the way he is now. Using his silhouette was the best way to accomplish this.

I then die cut all of my feathers from adhesive backed fabric. I used 2 different feather dies for this project: the Feather Headband and the 4x4 Shaped Die - Feathers.

Once I had all of my pieces cut, I ironed them onto a piece of solid blue, upholstry weight fabric that would become the front of my envelope style pillow.

Once the silhouette, feathers and headband were all ironed on, I edge stitched everything. You don't have to do this, but I liked the extra umph the stitching gave it.

There are so many variations that you can make of this same pillow! You can use one color fabric for the feathers instead of a variety, you can use solid cotton fabric instead of printed, you can research a certain tribe and duplicate their traditional headdress... it's completely customizable! Since Lil A's Warrior Pillow was going into the playroom, I wanted it to have a playful vibe hence- a rainbow of colors.

I hope you enjoyed this months project! This was an easy project, but a little time consuming. I wasn't able to completely cut through my fabric with the feather dies so I had to hand cut certain areas - I did it while watching a Wild Kratts show with Lil A which made it good busy work while learning about a big nosed monkey.

If you want to make a Little Warrior Pillow Cover for your own Warrior, check back tomorrow - I'll have a detailed tutorial ready and waiting!

And remember, if you want to purchase your own dies, visit the ShopWeR store and enter code KUTZPAPER at checkout to recieve 20% off your entire order!