Ruffle Heart Burlap Pillow Tutorial

I'm not really big on putting out Valentine's Day decorations...not sure why.  Maybe because by the time I get my Christmas decorations down, put away and my house back to normal, I don't feel like going through the trouble.  That said, I decided to try to be a little festive and make something Valentine-y for the house using stuff that I already had on hand (how economical of me).  Over the past few months I've seen tons of burlap pillows in blog land, and although they never really seemed practical or cozy, they are pretty cute...soooooo that is what I decided to make.  Here is my ONE and ONLY Valentine's Day decoration :)...

Here's what I used to make it:


natural burlap
various fabric scraps
red felt
hot glue gun
pinking shears
straight pins
pillow filling
sewing machine


And here's how I made it:


First I cut 2 burlap squares about 12"x12".  Then I cut a heart out of the felt...I did it the old school way by folding the felt in half and cutting it until I achieved my desired shape and size. Then I pinned the heart to the center of one of the burlap squares and sewed it on.  I used my sewing machine, but you could probably get away with hand stitching.

Next, I moved on to the fabric for the ruffles...used 4 different ones and went to town cutting 2.5 inch squares.  I think I cut about 25 of each fabric but I had some leftover.

Then I used pinking shears to cut the squares into circles...I was able to stack the fabric and cut 4 pieces at a time.  The circles do not have to be perfect (I am one of those people who never believes other people when they say it doesn't have to be perfect...yes, I'm a freak like that...so coming from me, they REALLY don't have to be perfect circles)!

To make each ruffle, I grabbed the circle from the center (with the fabric print facing in) and bunched it up.  

Then I dabbed some hot glue around the bottom center and stuck it to the felt heart...repeat a bunch of times.  It seems time consuming but it actually goes pretty fast.

Once the heart was completely ruffled, I turned the heart side facing in and sewed the two burlap squares together (I left a 6" opening so I could turn the pillow right-side-out and stuff it).  After stuffing, I used a blind hand stitch to close up the pillow.  I'm not gonna lie, this was not particularly easy with burlap, but I managed to get it done with some patience!

For a finishing touch, I added a decorative zigzag stitch with red thread.

And that's it!!!  My Valentine's Day decorations are done :)!