Vintage Inspired American Flag Pillow - $69.00 versus $7.00!

I recently got my July edition of my Southern Living magazine and I was looking through it and saw this:

Southern Living, July 2011

Southern Living, July 2011

I love this American Flag pillow but wasn't crazy about the price.  I knew that it would be fairly simple to make and I had just about everything I needed to make it.

Here are the supplies I used to make the pillow:

• 2 pieces of approximately 20" x 24" pieces of burlap
• Americana True Red Acrylic Paint
• Americana Primary Blue Acrylic Pain
• Star Stickers
• Vinyl strips cut into 1" strips
• 1" foam paint brush
• Pillow stuffing
• Wax Paper

The hardest process was figuring out the spacing of the stars.  I started with a 7" x 9" template (that is what that blue cardstock is above) that I traced off for the blue square on the pillow.  For the rows with 6 stars I started by moving in 1/2"  from my left margin and placed my first star and then measured 1 1/2" in between each star.  For the rows with 5 stars, I measured 1 1/2" from my left margin and spaced them 1 1/2" apart.  Each row is spaced 1/2" apart.

Each stripe is 1", so I just cut some vinyl strips 1" and just put them down the flag.  (FYI, 7 red stripes and 6 white/plain stripes)

I was then ready to paint.  This process went really fast.  VERY IMPORANT:  Put wax paper under this because the paint will bleed through!

When I painted the blue square I just blotted the paintbrush because I did not want the stars to lift off!

I let it dry for about an hour or so and then removed the vinyl strips and 50 gold stars (I used a thick needle for this to help lift them up).

The next morning after it was completely dry I turned the flag over against the other piece of burlap and begain sewing.  This was easy because I just followed the margins of the flag.  I sewed all the way around and left a pocket open to invert it and then stuffed it and sewed it shut!

Finished Product!

The finished size is 16" x 20"

This was my first tutorial!  Thanks for stopping by and have a great 4th of July!

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