Tiny Tree Pillow

This project didn't go as planned. Originally, I was going to make a small, heart-shaped pin for my boyfriend to put on his disc-golf bag. So cute. So twee. So gross, but I don't care. Then I thought, "Wouldn't it be even cuter to make the heart look like a tree trunk?" I grabbed my brown felt and got to sewing lots of wonky lines. 

After I was pleased with myself and how the fabric looked so tree-like, I thought, "Wouldn't it be even cuter if our initials were in a little heart?" So I cut out a little heart. Several hearts, really, but all of my first attempts looked like tiny baboon booties. Eventually, I churned out a red, heart-shaped felty thing. "Looks close enough," I thought.

Since I was still going with the pin idea at this point, I dug out a blank pinback from my craft stash. Then I debated over what shape I wanted the pin to be. Circle? Rectangle? Another heart? The heart was ruled out immediately because I didn't want to mess up all of my sewing I had just finished by accidentally cutting out more butt shapes. My favorite part of the tree lines was the very center and I knew I wanted to keep that intact. I thought, "I'll just make the whole thing a pin. Brilliant." I found another pinback and sewed both pinbacks onto my second piece of felt.

The embroidery I wanted on the small heart was a no-brainer. I wanted to keep it simple with a little "J + D" so I drew that on the felt with a Sharpie and hand-stitched the letters. Then, I machine-sewed the heart to my tree fabric. At this point, I was dying of cuteness and feeling very pleased with myself. I kept rubbing the textured fabric between my fingers. At this point, I was still making a pin for my boyfriend's disc golf bag. At this point, my pin was larger than my palm. At this point, I had not yet realized I was delusional. I thought, "Maybe I should keep this one for me."

Even the insides of this project were cute. Heart, heart, heart!

Well, not so much this boring part. But this piece was meant to be utilitarian. I envisioned this double-clasped pin on my boyfriend's bag and grew dismayed. I thought, "Maybe it's a little big..."

I had already sewn the right sides together, so I turned the fabric my giant pin...

and got this. It was only at this point that I realized I was making a tiny pillow. So I popped out the corners with Sharpie and stuffed the bejeezus out of that felt pillowcase. I thought, "Much better!"

I removed the pinbacks by snipping the threads and smoothing out the back panel with my fingers. I waited until the next day to hand stitch the final corner, swearing all the while like I knew I would.

I wish this project had spoken to me sooner... or, really, that I hadn't quashed its screams in stubborn pursuit of my original project idea. I would have added a little pocket or something else cute in lieu of the pinbacks.

from Instagram--follow me @diranasaurus

Happy making!