bench pillow and painting

Remember my bench that I recently bought for $2 at a garage sale?  I came across this picture and knew exactly what I wanted to do!  I already had the burlap on hand so no purchase was necessary! 

(Craft Goodies) 

First I laid the burlap on top of the bench to get a rough idea of how wide and deep the pillow would need to be.  I didn't even measure anything.  I just made sure to have straight lines which I can eyeball pretty dang easily thanks to my many years in as a cake decorator.

Of course there is no sewing involved in this because a) the burlap I have is not woven tightly so I didn't know how well that would work out and b) because my sewing machine is still hiding in Kiera's closet.  That is when I whipped out my iron and Heat n Bond and got to work!


My main piece of burlap wasn't long enough so I had to work some magic and attach a piece at the end to make it long enough for the bench which is approximately 38 inches.  Little ghetto here.  

So I got the burlap the proper length and width with all the edges adhered to one another except for one end so I could stuff it later.

Next is when the painting begins.  I still do not own a single can of spray paint and I was not going to go out and buy anything for the pillow so acrylic paint it was!  I had some ribbon I was going to use to hide one of my seams and decided I wanted to match the red color in it so it could somewhat match the brick on the house and tie the colors to the inside of our house.   I put a few pieces of paper inside so the paint wouldn't bleed to the backside of the pillow.  I drew a rough sketch of the numbers directly on the burlap with a pencil and and I free handed the numbers from there on out.


Since I am impatient with paint or glue drying I got out the blowdryer to speed up the process.  Then I slapped some Modge Podge on top of the letters to seal them.  And I blow dried that too.

Then this is where things get crazy.  I found a nasty old pillow in one of our cabinets and used part of that for the stuffing.  I had to take off the outside part of the cottony pillow filling to get the non matted fluffy white part.  I am surprised there was anything left.  

Then I added my ribbon (with a couple pieces of you guessed it... Heat N Bond)  to hide the seam and TA DAAAAAA!!!!!

My lovely bench pillow!  I really do love it.  If or I should say when I decide that I want a different pattern of ribbon down the road I can easily pull the current one off.  


And since I was going crazy with a need to be crafty and such I touched up this little welcome sign I have sitting next to our front door.

Whew I am feeling accomplished!