The Style Sisters: Tutorial

Snowflake Stenciled Pillow Cover - The Style Sisters

By The Style Sisters - Thursday, November 07, 2013

Recently I was invited to a gift exchange with 10 friends! Each one of us makes 10 homemade creative gifts that we exchange with each other when we gather together at one of our houses.

It is a really fun "girl's night out" each of us brings treats to share and we chit chat for a bit and then it's like Christmas morning.....We get to open up our gifts from each other..sometimes there is a funny or frustrating story that goes along with process of making the gift and this year did not disappoint! I will share pics of the party tomorrow and all the cute things they each made and tell you some of the stories...one involves SPIDERS!

I decided to make a stenciled pillow. I was inspired by the Pottery Barn "All Is Calm Pillow" HERE I wanted to write the words "Let it Snow" across the top and bottom but when I tried....it failed :( the fabric is too porous the paint from the pens just soaked right into the fabric, I tried 5 different paint pens and after 6 or 7 coats per letter it did start to look kind of like what I going for but I wasn't going to do that per letter on 11 pillows!! So I bagged that idea. Here is what it looked like.

I found this snowflake stencil at Hobby Lobby, some white acrylic paint and used a little spray adhesive on the back so it would stick to the fabric and that world perfectly. Tip- if you water down the paint even a little remember to put paper or something inside the pillow as the paint can bleed through to the other side...yeah ask me how I know (grumble grumble)

After I got the stenciled snowflakes on the pillow it just looked empty especially without some words so I looked at my pile of ribbon and laid some on there but it just wasn't working for me..then I remembered I had some rick rack..I liked it so instead of just hot glueing it on there I unzipped the pillows and sewed it on each side of the stenciled snowflakes. Tip- use tape to hold down the rick rack ...no pinning necessary!

I just used a straight stitch and it sewed up nicely.

I was afraid the end of the rick rack would unravel so I used some Fray Check on the ends to keep that from happening..it dries clear and is like glue that seals the edges..a little bit goes a long way.

I also stamped some little brown gift tags and pinned them on the pillows so that each could be given as a gift to someone.

Eleven Snowflake Pillows....I think it should be part of the 12 days of Christmas song! ;)

Here is how they looked on my sofa before I took them to the party..kind of fun mixed with my other colorful pillows don't ya think.

Linking to

The Tablescaper Betweennapsontheporch Savvy Southern style

The dedicated house knick of time boogieboardcottage

Not just a housewife Inspiration Exchange party cuisine kathleen, stonegableblog tatertotsandjello

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A Dining Room Chair Make-Over Tutorial

By The Style Sisters - Friday, June 29, 2012

It has been a year since we moved back to Utah from Texas and it has been a fabulous year filled with many fun changes. We are now closer to our family members and spend lots of time with them!

We changed the look of our interiors and landscaped

the yard in our new home.

Last year before we moved we scoured many thirft shops to find pieces of furniture that might work for us and we came across this table and chair set and knew we had to have it!

Of course it did not look like this to begin with...we had to do a complete Make-over!!

Here is the before...great quality, heavy wood, naaag-a-hide seats...haha that is how I spell it because it needs to be hidden!!

Me no likey plain wood and naag-a-hide! So I had to bring out the big guns! A.K.A. my amazing hubby!

He is so awesome and always helps me with big projects like this!

I see the potential and get the idea and then he does all the hard labor..not too bad huh!!

I love the details on these chairs and they just popped when the paint started going on. He lightly sanded each piece and then slapped the paint on...I can't remember what color we used....we found the paint at Wal-mart. Then once the paint was on and dried we sanded off some of the edges to make it look worn. You can see the wood showing through on the edges.

Then we sanded in random spots on the flat parts of the chairs too. We then painted on a coat of polyurethane, sanded with an electric sander to make it smooth and painted on another coat of polyurethane. It has been a year now and they have held up so nicely!! Dirt and grime just wipe off easily!

Next came the covering of the Naag-a-hide!! Brown kaka looking stuff! I left it on and just covered it up!

Here I am as Vanna White hahah

Step 1. Remove the seat from the chairs and save the screws somewhere where you can find them again

Step 2. Make sure your work surface is large enough to handle your chair seat as you will be flipping it around. Oh and cover your worksurface...I scratched my daughters table (oops)

Step 3 lay your fabric on work surface pretty side face down. Place seat on top with with back facing up and bum sitting area down.Step 4 Starting on one side pull fabric in center and staple 2 or 3 staples. Move to opposite side and repeat. Go to the other opposite sides and repeat. Then work your way all around the piece...pulling and stapling all around. (this allows the fabric to stay centered and not pull to one side) Check to make sure the fabric is centered nicely..if not remove staples and fix....or as my grandson would say "fits it grandma". Leave corners undone for now...I will show you how to do the corners below.

4. Here is the corner area undone...Pull up the center towards the seat...make it nice and smooth.... and then on the two edges fold to make everything nice and smooth.

It may take a little folding here or there to make it lay nice and smooth and then staple, staple staple.

Trim off any excess with your scissors. Oh and for the backing I reused the black stuff that was on the chair and stapled over the edges of the nice fabric for a clean look.

Then flip it over and look at your beautiful new seat cover!!

Here is how they look today! I love these chairs so much!! They are so sturdy, they hold up so well to the grandkids, tons of nieces and nephews, in laws, out laws, friends neighbors and the dog! I sprayed a fabric protector over my new fabric and they are holding up perfectly!!

Here is the table and chairs in my kitchen nook today. I love using a round table...eveyone fits around it for meals, games, computer useage and just chatting and hanging out!