By Jennifer Carson
Materials needed:
14” wide x 28” long Light-colored Fine wale Corduroy, or other medium weight fabric
Embroidery floss in: red-brown, dark peach, white, black, green, yellow
Hand sewing supplies
Scraps of wool felt in your choice of colors for flowers
¼ cup of dried lavender
Rice or flax seeds for fill
Heat or water erasable marking pen
With summer just around the corner and lots of gardening to be done, what could be better than a pretty warming pillow to soothe those sore muscles? Stuff the pillow with some dried lavender for soothing aromatherapy. To heat the pillow, place in the microwave for thirty seconds, pull it out and shake it, and heat it for another thirty seconds. You can also warm it in the oven by placing it in a cold oven on a cookie sheet. Turn oven on to 200 degrees. Shake pillow after five minutes, and put it back in the oven for another two to five minutes, checking it often to make sure that it is not too hot. Be cautious, it could burn you if you get it too hot. You can also try putting it in the freezer if you need a cool pack instead of a warming pack. Enjoy!
Directions:
1. Cut two squares 14“x14”. With a heat or water erasable pen, on the right side of the fabric, transfer the fox design onto one square of fabric.
2. Using two strands of reddish-brown floss and a stem stitch or backstitch, embroider the outline of the fox.
3. With two strands of peach, embroider the front of the ears and the foot pads.
4. With two strands of white floss embroider the nails. Reduce the white floss to one strand and embroider the whiskers.
5. With two strands of black floss embroider the fox’s nose. Reduce the black floss to one strand and embroider her eye.
6. Using a stem stitch and two strands of green floss, embroider the vines. Using a detached chain stitch embroider the leaves on your vines.
7. To add small blossoms to the vines, use six strands of floss and embroider French knots in groups of three or five.
8. Trace the flower pattern onto freezer paper. Cut the pattern out of the freezer paper on the line. With a warm iron, press the freezer paper onto your scrap of felt. Cut the flower out. Repeat to make three flowers.
9. Arrange the felt flowers in the middle of the vines. Use a French knot in the center to hold the flowers in place.
10. With right sides together, draw a line around the fox embroidery about 2 inches away from the stitching. Sew the pillow on the line you just drew, leaving a turning opening about four inches wide. Sew a second seam about ¼” from the first. A double seam will help keep the seeds and buds from poking out.
11. Turn pillow right side out. To fill the pillow use ¼ cup lavender and fill with flax seeds (or rice) until pillow is about three quarters of the way full.
12. Hand-stitch the turning opening closed.
Jennifer Carson is a local girl who enjoys
creating beautiful items for home and
family including: cards, stickers, wool
candle rugs, bags, quilts, Waldorf dolls,
stuffed animals, and more! You can see
more of her work and peruse the over 60
available crafting patterns on her website: thedragoncharmer.com.
For embroidery stitch directions, please
visit https://youtu.be/Ic6hve0QU-8 for a
great video tutorial!
Print and enlarge to desired size.
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