An Embroidered Pillow Fit For Shark Week
I am seldom prepared sewing-wise for holidays or gifts, but this year I am fully prepared to enjoy Shark Week. Inspired by the week long (this year it starts June 26th) Discovery Channel takeover of all things shark related, I took to the internet to find some shark embroidery designs. I was not disappointed! I had a few designs in mind and after a quick mental game of eenie-meenie I had the winner. Behold, this fun shark design from Urban Threads.
This little diddy is available in two sizes and 11 different formats. It is also part of the Urban Threads summer design sale. As if it couldn’t get any better, sharks and a sale, thanks Urban Threads.
With a great design in hand, I just needed a project to properly show it off. I figured the best place for my new friend was a pillow for my couch, this way we could both enjoy watching the Shark Week offerings.
I picked a natural canvas for the background and hooped a layer of tearaway stabilizer and fused another piece to the back of the canvas. I chose the larger of the two design sizes, so I wanted to make sure I had a sturdy foundation for all those sharky stitches. Inspired by a featured project from Jennifer on the Urban Threads Tumblr feed, I too added the catchy quote, “Live every week like it’s shark week” from Tracy Jordan of 30 Rock to complete my embroidery design. The font was a built in from a Babylock Destiny machine. I used the Destiny’s font editing tools to perfectly place my text around my design and then got to stitching. I really love how big the shark is and how the angle of stitching gives the shark such life-like qualities. I also adore his orange fin floaties, don’t you?
To compliment his fin floaties I picked a bright orange and blue fabric for the pillow piping and back. I cut some bias strips and followed Mallory’s amazing video directions to piece them together. Mallory then suggested I use Nancy Zieman’s Wrap n Fuse Piping (watch video here) to make quick work of turning all that bias into beautiful lengths of piping. Can you tell I love piping?
Having made pillow covers with an envelope style closure and buttons before, I wanted to try something a little different- putting in an invisible zipper. Well, actually Mallory sewed it in for me, as I feared stitching it in wrong and making hideous joins at the start and stop of the zipper. My shark pillow deserved better, so I let her do it.
It is glorious! I am no longer terrified of such applications even with fabric that has piping attached, the next invisible zipper is all mine. And a few seams later…
TA-DA! Super shark pillow fit for Shark Week.
What fintastic projects do you make in preparation for Shark Week? I’m thinking of also making this drink for the adults and these marshmallow pops for the kids. For the recipes click on the pics below.
Just keep stitching, SamBam
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