Teachers Appreciation Gifts: Hand Print Pillows

I can not believe that the end of school is nearly here again and I found myself yearning to make me all time favorite project - hand print pillows. You might remember that we made them first for Mother's Day and for teacher appreciation gifts last year. 

This year we had 3 pillows to make. A total of 21 children aged from 18months to 5 years popped around at one time or another to let me paint their hands and print them on fabric. With the age of the kids you are working with you just have to embrace the imperfections and go with it. This year I used Jacquard Fabric Paints & painted the leaves & stems onto the pillows.



I wanted to do some different designs this year so we have a flower bed of flowers ....

.... with a plant label, quilted in swirls and brown yarn for the earth.

We have a bouquet ....

... with gift tag ...

 

... quilted in pebbles & feather swirls.

And the old classic of flowers in a vase ....

... with gift tag ...

.... and quilted in pebbles, swirls & waves.

 

AND  I am very proud to share this shot with you - another school year over and I am one proud proud Mummy. I love this project - perhaps we will do it again next year!

Tissue Paper Dyed Silk Pillow

Here we decided to revisit our success as dying silk with tissue paper but this time use the technique to make a pillow. This is a super easy & quick no mess project that you can do on your own or with your little one.





I prepared a fabric pad to put our tissue paper on.  The pad is made up of:
18.5" x 18.5" square of cotton (this will be on the inside of the cushion so it doesn't matter what it looks like
18.5" x 18.5" square of batting (I used a scrap piece of wool batting for this project)
18.5" x 18.5" square of white cotton
18.5" x 18.5" square of silk (I took this from one of our silk scarfs we get from Dharma Trading)

Once the pillow is finished it will fit a 18" insert.

I kept all the layers together by running a zigzag stitch around the outside

I prepared a spray bottle with 1 part water & 1 part vinegar and cut up some strips of tissue paper.

We sprayed the pad to make it wet.

Bunny #1 laid down strips of tissue paper - any which way.

A little bit more spraying?

Once she had had enough of spraying & laying down the strips we put cling film over the top to stop it drying out & left it for a little while (couple of hours.)

The tissue paper made very vibrant colors on the silk & there was some interesting texture.After I had removed all the tissue paper I put the cushion top through the wash - cold wash and dried in the tumble dryer.

I tend to make pillowcase enclosure pillows as I am terrified of zips and I love a bit of ribbon. We also added some orange piping to the pillow to give it a bit of a zing.

Teacher Appreciation Gift: Hand Print Pillows

For my eldest bunny - we made her class teacher & classroom assistant hand print cushions.

You may remember that I made these before for Grandma on Mother's Day.

Each child in the class made his or her hand print using fabric paint.

I quilted the front of each cushion (experimenting with free motioning quilting - one continuous line in a heart pattern - not perfect ...

... way harder than it looks) and added some embellishments (felt flower pot & a bow.)

I wanted the pillows to be very fun and happy so this time I made a ruffle trim. (I have a new ruffler foot - which I would much recommend for endless hours of fun easy ruffles.)

I made labels for the back of the cushions so the teacher can identify who made each hand print. I favor a pillowcase closure for cushions - easy and prettier than a messy zipper (I am scared of zips!)

 

I hope you all have a wonderful summer holiday. I can't wait not to have to load all the kids in the car (twice) every morning for the school run and if you are wondering what to do with your little people this summer check out Fun at Home with Kids, Growing a Jeweled Rose and the Artful Parent for endless ideas for fun and inventive play.

Mother's Day: Hand Print Pillows

Mother's Day in the UK is on a different day than Mother's Day in the US. (This year Mother's Day in the UK was March 10th.) One would think that this would give me two days of pampering by my family - unfortunately - this is not the case! However we did need to send Granny a little gift to help her celebrate the day across the pond.

We decided to make her some pillows with hand and foot prints.

First we need to protect the floor so we stuck down some foil under a sheet of fabric. We did our feet and hand prints in a bathroom that hasn't been decorated in 45 years (literally!) so I wasn't too nervous about little hands and feet covered in paint.

First I had the girls sit on the floor and I painted their foot with a thick layer of fabric paint.

 I then helped them stand on the fabric to make our prints.

Once our prints were dry we added stems and leaves by potato printing. (In case you are wondering about the presence of Olivia the Pig - she is the class 'pet' and she was staying with us for the weekend.)
 

 We added a flower pot and a ribbon bow.

I quilted with some swirly whirly free hand quilting ...

... and added some fancy flange to the pillows.

 

Here are our finished cushions.

I opted for a  pillowcase opening sealed with a bright purple ribbon. Here is the back of the cushion.

Such a cute gift that I think any Granny would be thrilled to receive. Even our littlest (6 months) got his feet and hands in on the action - his first official art work!!