Tweetle Dee Design Co.: Twelve Days of Giving

The best part of the holidays is the gift of giving & we have been so blessed this year by all of you that we wanted to give each of you a gift. If you are following me on Facebook or Instagram you know we have been giving away one gift each day, but today's gift is for everyone! I wanted to share the free download for our Christmas Eve Delivery Pillow which also comes with the template for our Holly and Ivy Pillow. We wish you the happiest of holidays and happy stitching!
It's time to begin decking the halls and one of my favorite quick projects for adding a big pop of color and warmth are wool appliqued pillows. If you can cut, glue and go up and down with a needle you can make these! I have three patterns for you, Swiss Cross, Holly and Ivy, and Christmas Eve Special Delivery.

DIY Wool Christmas Pillows
I have three patterns for you to choose from...or you can make all three! For these pillows you will need -

1 yard of wool felt per pillow
16 " pillow form
scraps of wool
pom poms for the wreath pillow
needle and embroidery hoop
scissors
fabric marker for tracing
embroidery floss to match your wool
Aleen's No-Sew Fabric Glue
free downloadable pattern from TD Christmas Wool Pillow Pattern Templates

Christmas Eve Delivery Wool Applique Pillow
The first step to making these pillows is of course to gather your wool scraps and cut out the pieces. I use a fabric marker to trace out my pattern on the wool. If you are tracing a directional piece such as the truck you will need to trace it in reverse so the most colorful side of the wool shows. To get the template pieces for these three pillows click on the link above.
Once your templates are cut out you need to place them on the pillow cover. To make the pillow cover cut a wide strip of the wool 17" wide by 36" long. This will make a envelope style pillow cover with no need for a zipper or button. This type of pillow cover works especially great for heavy fabrics such as wool. Lay your pillow form in the middle of the strip to see where your front borders will be and mark with pins.

Now it's time to adhere your wool scraps to the pillow front. Turn your pillow cover right side up and center your design pieces in the marked off front square according to the pattern. Turn the pieces wrong side up and glue a small strip of Aleene's No-Sew Fabric Glue about 1/4" from the edges and glue onto the pillow background where it belongs. Lightly press into the fabric and let dry. Continue with the rest of the pieces.

To stitch down the edges of the wool felt pieces, you take a coordinating embroidery floss and stitch a simple tack stitch all the way around. Your stitches should be about a half inch apart. Tack down all the edges. Now let's make the pillow....

To make the pillow cover cut a wide strip of the wool 17" wide by 36" long. This will make a envelope style pillow cover with no need for a zipper or button. This type of pillow cover works especially great for heavy fabrics such as wool.

Fold the left over fabric over the back and pin or clip down wrong sides out. You can either hand-stitch the sides together or use your trusty sewing machine to make a running stitch up the sides about a 1/4 inch from the edge. Sew all the way up both sides and turn right side out. Your pillow cover is now done! Stuff with your pillow form and fluff.

To make the wreath pillow you will need a 1/4 yard of two different green wool scraps to give a contrast. Once the front square of my pillow cover was marked, I found a small round salad plate and marked a circle to use as a template for my leaves. After cutting all of the leaves out, I took them to my sewing machine and using a bright green thread, I stitched a vein into each one. Then I layered them in different directions and glued them down. I glued the pom-poms on with Aileen's Fabric Glue as well.

In total these three pillows (Swiss Cross, Holly and Ivy, and Christmas Eve Delivery) took about two hours to put together. I had my kiddos help glue the pieces on and stitch down the edges. I like getting them involved with decorating for the holidays. If you have any questions about these pillows, send me an email and I'll be happy to answer them!
I hope you have a fun stitching these together and go follow the Twelve Days of Giving on Instagram and Facebook for even more fun and giveaways. Happy Holidays!!!