DIY | Vintage Photo Pillows

I've been trying to figure out what to make some of our family members for Christmas. Last week I saw this pic in my December Country Living Magazine (my FAVOURITE magazine) and thought they looked pretty cute. I think photos on fabric can very easily look tacky or cheesy but being that these were old photos, black and white... I thought they were kind of classy.

It inspired me to make this.

It's a photo I took of my two kids this summer while at Grandma and Grandpa's. They are standing on the corral fence trying to entice the horses and "Mee-Moo" the cow to come over. In the editing program I used the Timeless preset from One Willow Presets for the effect. Then I "washed out" the edges of the picture with a highlight priority.



Did you know that you don't need special fabric for the printer? Nope... you just need... Freezer Paper!



Can you find Freezer Paper in Canada? Not sure... I haven't. But I haven't looked all over Canada :) I grabbed mine at Walmart in Minot, ND.

Cut a piece of freezer paper the size of a 8.5 x 11 piece of computer paper. Then, just iron it on to the back of the fabric that you'd like to print the photo on. Cut the fabric to the size of the freezer paper after it's been ironed on.

UPDATE: I had a reader who commented and then found a solution that you can prepare your fabric with that will "set" the ink so that it's permanent and can be washed in the future. It's called Bubble Jet Set and you can read about how to use it here.
Thanks "Swankygirl109"!

I took my picture and put it on a word document so that I could size it to fill up the most of a regular sheet of paper. Put your freezer papered fabric into the printer so that it will print on just the fabric side (NOT the freezer paper).

Press print and viola!

I wanted to add a little depth to my pillow so I threw on an embroidery hoop and free-handed a little vine and leaf pattern on opposite corners in a dark gray that matched the ink.

Once I finished the embroidery I gently ironed out the kinks made by the hoop.

Pick out a fabric for the backing and then pin the two fabrics right sides facing. Sew all the way around but leave an opening for turning and stuffing. When you've got it turned right side out and have it stuffed to perfection you can use a hidden stitch to close the opening.



And here you'll have a charming, personalized gift.

Another Update:

These pillows were so easy to make and so personal that I ended up making probably 8 for people for Christmas. Foolishly I didn't take pictures of them all but did snag this one of the one I made my dad after he opened it on Christmas morning. My dad is an all around outdoorsman and it was important to him to pass on these things to his grandchildren. He bought my son his first fishing rod and gave it to him this summer. He put a lead weight on the line and taught Kai to cast on the grass and then took us out on the boat and was the one to help him cast in the water - with a real hook.  This picture was from Kai's second fishing outing and where he caught his first fish so it was quite the event.

If you don't want to be restricted to an 8.5 x 11 pillow you can make "photo patches". Check out the "Love Notes" pillow I made for Valentine's Day!