Gold Polka Dot Pillows

Most of the pillows I've made have been really colorful and have been single pillows that didn't match. I keep seeing simple, neutral throw pillows and always admire them, so I've been meaning to make some for awhile. I looked for fabric that appealed for this but didn't find it, so I decided to make it when I saw the success of the freezer paper deer sweatshirts. 

You'll Need: 

Pillow Covers - I found two 18x18 pillow covers that were $4.99 on sale for 50% off at Hobby Lobby and bought them, relishing the joys of not measuring and sewing. I need to take a refresher course on sewing machines because while I do use mine, I use it in the worst way possible and break sewing needles all the time. 

Paint - I also bought a 2oz tube of metallic paint in "Antique Gold". I debated buying two but went with the one and it was fine. 

Textile medium - guessing this isn't necessary, but I had it so I used it. 

I began by ironing my pillow cover.
To prevent paint from seeping through the fabric, I improvised and used these plastic cutting boards - side note: they are the best cutting boards on the planet.

After getting the covers situated, I set to work on making the dots. I google image searched "polka dots" and found one that I liked, then magnified the image to the size I wanted. I don't have a printer, so I put copy paper to the screen and made dots around the circles to trace.

I set my dots under the freezer paper and began to cut. And frustration bubbled over. You know how it's hard to draw a perfectly perfect circle? Well, it's also hard to cut one with a little knife. And not just to cut one but to cut enough to cover a pillow.

After lots of wasted freezer paper scraps and lots of frustration, I decided to go to the closest store (Wal-Mart) and see if they had anything that would help. I was looking for a stencil or some sort of long hole punch so I could make the stupid dots. I didn't really want circles that looked like these:

I found these little round foam things and thought "why not?"

So then I used my former freezer paper stencil as a guide. I used a regular old brown marker to mark the middle of each, to show where my dots should go.

 And I tested out my dotting on a napkin. Side note: I want to do gold with navy sometime because I loved the way this looked!

I mixed textile medium with my paint, hoped for the best and stamped the fabric. This was definitely the way to go - the two hours (yes really) I spent trying to figure out the freezer paper situation could have been spent in more profitable ways.

And this is why the cutting boards were necessary - this is how they looked when I pulled them out.

I didn't love the way the gold turned out - it was really bronze looking on the pillows once it dried, so I grabbed leftover glitter paint and brushed it on. It wasn't too sparkly but gave the dots more dimension.

And after they were dried (well, mostly dry, but I was anxious to be finished), I put a cloth napkin over the top and ironed to set the paint.

I took these pillows whose origin was unknown (were they a gift? did Carson find them at a garage sale somewhere?) and that I've never loved and used them to stuff my new pillows.

I wish they were a little fuller so I will probably make forms for them someday, but for now I'm really satisfied.