{something I just whipped up}

 A few weeks back I helped my sister finally finish her duvet cover for her super king duvet. We made it out of two king flat sheets and added a insert of fabric to make it wider. She bought some gorgeous crisp cotton from Restoration Hardware at a local fabric store for the insert panel. I then stitched white satin ribbon along the seam of the insert to add some visual interest.

 But I was in such a hurry I didn't take any photos. Sad...I know.....I'll have to photograph her room when it's all put together.

But, I did take pictures of this.......

As a surprise I stitched up this monogrammed pillow for her bed. It was easy to put the pillow together, making an envelope enclosure that I added buttonholes and buttons to jazz up the back.

These buttons are special as my mom let me rifle through my grandma's sewing box and let me take a few of her antique buttons. She passed away in September and I though it would be special to use them for the pillow for my sister.

The hardest and most challenging part was the monogram. 

I have seen monogrammed pillows all over blogland and wanted to try it myself.

 How hard can it be?

Well.....it took me about an hour fiddling on the computer, searching the internet for help, to create a reverse image of the initial. 

Frustrating to say the least.

 Everyone makes it seem so easy, except I had no "reverse image" option in Word for my Mac. 

I will let you in on my secret-took-me-forever-discovery.....

You enlarge your letter and then save it as a JPEG file, which can be flipped! Easy, peasy.

Then print out the reversed image on transfer paper.

*I used Avery brand Iron-on T-shirt transfer paper for ink jet printers, purchased at Staples.

Iron it onto the pillow, following the directions.

 Easy? No....

This is where my project went wrong.

Here are a few tips I learned the hard way:

 Don't sew your whole pillow together and then iron on the letters, as you might end up doing this:

Yes, I scorched the pillow by holding down the iron for too long! Argh!

The iron needs to keep moving over the back of the paper, don't let it sit there or the heat will scorch your fabric.

I had to rip stitch apart the whole pillow, cut out another rectangle, re-print another letter and start over.

Lucky for me I had extra fabric. After ironing on the letter AND THEN sewing together the pillow, it is now happily sitting on my sister's bed!

XO Barbara