Following Directions For Using Transfer Artist Paper

We all know that men have a hard time asking for directions or even looking at the enclosed directions for items needing assembly. It's true I've experience this first hand. So really with that assumption I thought I was good, ask for directions, look at the enclosed directions for items I'm either assembling or using and I always do that.

But truth be told it has come to my attention that I think I'm above the whole direction thing.  I read them and then just do my own thing.

Below you will see a photo of a pillow I made. I used my Lesley Riley's Transfer Artist Paper (love this stuff) and I can't even tell you how many times I read the directions. I don't use this paper that often so I need a refresher just to make sure I'm doing it right.

There's the part though that says to iron on a hard surface. My ironing board is really not a totally hard surface and I know that mentally I kept saying "it's okay nothing bad is going to happen" I just sort of dismissed this and went ahead and just ignored sound  advice.

So as you can see by my photo my image has left an impression of my metal iron board. I just sat there and shook my head in disbelief that this happened. Really don't know why I would be surprised the direction said Hard Surface  not hard surface with holes in it.

So I took out a towel and used that on the ironing board for the next image I was doing and it work, surprise surprise.

I don't know that I will ever make the comment that men don't follow directions cause I just experienced first hand that I'm just as guilty of doing the same thing. 

Stay tuned on Monday I'll be showing you how I made these pillows and a few others from fabric napkins and tablecloths.  Yeah this one will be included.

Making Pillows Out of Fabric Napkins

I'm known for visiting thrift stores and one of the first places I head to in the store is the linen section. I just love me some fabric napkins.

This love of napkins started way way back when I inherited a linen table cloth and napkin set from my aunt. It had some embroidery on it in grey and it was just a so so design in my opinion but there was something about those napkins that I loved.

Those napkins became the pillows that you see below and I have not stopped making pillows from fabric napkins since then.

To make the grade the napkins have to have the following:

1. Be attractive to me whether it's the fabric or the texture of the fabric
2.  No stains because once there is a stain it's so hard to remove or should I say impossible and I'd really rather be designing and sewing then trying to get a stain out. 
3. A good size that would translate well into a pillow. Some are just too small and some are too big. Perfect to me is an 18" x 18" napkin.
4. The napkins need to be uniform in size so that when I size them up together one isn't bigger than the other, unless I'm making a different fabric back then it doesn't matter

Below is a picture of some new ones I just made.

I loved these napkins the minute I saw them and the seller at the flea market knew what I wanted them for but was surprised that I didn't care that they were a polyester blend fabric. Nope didn't care because the texture of the material and that little stitch border was calling my name. Size was a perfect 18" x 18".  I got the set of four napkins for $3.00.

First up was finding some images that I could iron on to the front of the pillows. Found some great ones at The Graphic Fairy site and also purchased some on Etsy.

The Transfer Artist Paper from Amazon  is my go to product for iron on. This product works great!

Because I loved the look of this fabric I made the backs of the pillows in linen fabric with the envelope style for ease of inserting the pillow so I could get four pillows instead of two.

Here's a closer look at the texture of the fabric and the stitch on the edge that I love.

Stay tuned for my next post and I'll give you some easy instructions for making your own fabric napkin pillows.