Happy Friday! Today we are keeping it real and Gina is bringing glamour to the under appreciated, always utilized and almost dirty little secret that we all hide in the workroom. Â And she is doing it in style.
The Hot Glue Gun
Let’s face it, we all have one tucked away in a drawer somewhere. Â Mine is hidden in the 2nd drawer of the main cabinet and it is so “loved”. Â Especially around Halloween! Â Now, let’s check out what Gina has in store for us.
Anything embellished tugs at my heart a little. Although my decorating style is a mixture of vintage cottage and industrial farmhouse, adding small accents with a big impact is my favorite way to bring a little personality into my home. I’d say a little pillow with a great big flower fits the bill, don’t you?
To start, you need 108 inch wide muslin (or 3 yards of any other fabric).You need three 4-inch strips. Just snip…
 …and rip.
Stitch the ends together, so you have one super long (at least 9 ft.) strip.
Now you’re gonna need a ruffler… unless you want to ruffle it by hand (and that’s cool, too.)
Fold the strip in half, putting the folded end into the ruffler.
Then ruffle it up! (My ruffler was set to ruffle every stitch, smallest gather, stitch length 4.0).
Once you’re all ruffled and stuff, now it’s time for the flower making to begin. Start at the end of your ruffle.
Take the end, and begin to roll it up. Not too tight, but good and snug.
After you get a couple of inches rolled, you’re ready to glue.
Just put down a dot, right on the seam line, and roll into it. Add another bit of glue every 2-3 inches, keeping it all held together.
You want to keep the folded edge as even as possible. It’s going to turn out a bit towards the end, but the closer together you keep it in the beginning, the better it will look.
Once it’s too big to hold in one hand, flip it upside down and you’re going to start gluing every inch of it. Just run a bead of glue, then lay the ruffle down as you go. It’s much easier at this point because it holds itself up.
Just glue & press the ruffle in until you get to the end. When you get to the end, just let it stop where it is, it’s ok, I promise.
See, the outer edges puff up a bit, but it just makes it prettier in the end.
You have a pillow form ready, right? I’ve found burlap is the easiest. Just make your form, then find a piece of glass (mine came out of an old frame I made into a chalkboard). {Find instructions for a pillow cover here.}
Slide the glass inside the form, putting it under where you want the flower to be.
Now take your flower, and smother the backside of it in hot glue.
Gobs of glue, I tell ya.
Now smush the flower right where you want it on front of the pillow cover (on top of the glass.) Hold it there for a sec to let the lava hot glue quit oozing.
And now the magic happens….. after all those rounds of ruffles…
It’s done!
And then you have a dahlia pillow!
Thanks to my sweet friend Heather for inviting me over here at The Sewing Loft today! Want to see more of my low-budget decorating ideas? Then scoot on over to find me at my blog The Shabby Creek Cottage.
Love the pillow, but don’t have the time to make it yourself? You’re in luck! It’s one of my best selling products in my Etsy shop. To celebrate hanging out with Heather today, you can save 25% off your order with coupon code SEWINGLOFT – good through Sunday.
I just love it Gina!! Thanks so much for keeping us all in check and proving that it is okay to make things work!  I can not tell you how many times I have wanted  to use my hot glue gun in a time crunch but felt guilty.
Comments & Reviews
Gina’s dahlia is gorgeous! I could see it framed, too, but I love the pillow!
Wow, I never would have thought that was made with hot glue!
very very clever! so pretty! so going to try this!