Copycat Etsy Unicorn Pillow

My good friend Julia looooooves unicorns. And yes, she is 28 years old. She taught our cousin's daughter all about magic and unicorns and fairies and even mailed her a "fairy house kit" (which was basically a bunch of sticks and moss and glitter). Julia is a rare soul. But unfortunately for Julia, she was born 3 days before Christmas so every year her birthday gets overshadowed but another significant birthday that month....

This year I wanted to do something special to make her birthday stand out. We were going to take her to dinner and shower her with love, but she got strep throat..... this is not a lucky girl. But anyway, I found this pillow on Etsy, but the seller has 'gone on vacation' and that was in 2012 so I was kind of on my own. Anyway, I thought Julia would just LOVE it.

Hopefully you took Home Ec, or as it was called when I was going to school, Family and Consumer Studies (FACS) and know how to sew a basic pillow. If not, you probably shouldn't be doing this project anyway.

What You Will Need: 

• 'cross stitch' fabric - you'll find it in the embroidery section of the craft store
• embroidery thread - I used the same colors as the example, and I only needed 1 of each
• embroidery hoop - the size will depend on how big you want your pillow to be
• embroidery needle - maybe two in case you bend or lose one
• pillow stuffing - you won't need much, probably the smallest bag you can find at the craft store will be pllllenty
• (optional) a backing fabric - you could just use the cross stitch fabric all the way but I liked the idea of a little extra color
• iron
• a sewing machine and thread - and knowledge of how to use them

How To Make It

• cut your cross stitch fabric to the relative size you'd like the pillow to be
• I traced the design out in pencil first so I could have an easy guideline

• place the fabric on the embroidery hoop with your design in the middle 
• I started with the pink thread, pull out a considerable amount of thread (about your wingspan) and tie a knot at the end so it doesn't pull all the way through
• I used a back stitch (seen below) if you'd like to try another stitch HERE is a good website of basic embroidery stitches, however, I think it's best if you have a friend show you (thanks Molly) or use a youtube tutorial

Back Stitch

• when you finish with a color don't forget to tie knots at the end so your stitches don't unravel over time
• repeat with your other colors until you are finished, like this 

• remove your fabric from your embroidery hoop and iron out the creases
• cut your embroidery fabric and your backing fabric to the size your want your pillow to be, leaving a half an inch for sewing room
• sew and stuff your pillow and BAM you are done! 

I'm pretty happy with the results of my pillow and Julia was THRILLED (or was really good at faking it...).