Heirloom Pillow

Posted by Donna:

I wanted to share one of the home-made gifts I made my girls this Christmas. I had seen a similar pillow at one of my very favorite stores in Oklahoma City. This gave me the idea to do this one, but use pictures of their grandparents and great-grandparents.

A couple of years ago, I decided I wanted pictures of all the grandparents when they were very young and first married. It took me a while and several letters to relatives to come up with two or three of the pictures.

To do the pillow, I had Larry scan and print each picture onto a wallet size photo.

The doilies on the two corners were hard to find. I knew what kind of doilie I wanted, but finding each one was hard. The first I found here locally, but the second one I found in an Antique Store in Wichita Falls, Texas.

I also wanted vintage brooches above the pictures. I really wanted to use some of my mother's, but she only had one that would work and I wasn't going to choose who should have it. After searching several stores, I finally located the two vintage butterflies at Hobby Lobby.

I used a pillow form for the pillow. The ribbons were tacked on, then tied to each picture.

These pillows can be used in so many ways. anniversary gifts, wedding, birthdays, etc. So many possiblities---

Just to let you know--- The pillow that I saw had a price tag over $100.00. I was shocked. Believe me, it only took about $12.00 of materials to make; but since I'm not a great seamtress, I told Larry I might charge that much to make one for someone else!!!!!! It was a very trying project to figure out exactly how I wanted it to look. After it was finished, though, I couldn't wait to give it to the girls---regardless of all the mess ups on each one. I love making keepsakes for them.

I'll share another project I made for them in a day or so.