Growing up in my house, we had a “You are special today” plate. It was a fun tradition and we were always excited when our mom would get out that bright, red special plate from the china cupboard and put it down at someone’s place setting. It was an added reminder about how special each one of us was to her.
I was thinking about that plate the other day….and came up with this same idea, but as a pillow to place on different family member’s beds throughout the year as a reminder of how special each person is in our family. So, one day a week or so ago I whipped up an easy “You are Special Today…” pillow in an afternoon and am sharing the tutorial so you can make your own.
Here are the easy pillow making instructions if you want to make one too (I think they would be an awesome family gift for others too!):
*2–20″ by 20″ linen squares (or any other fabric you want to use)
*The “You are special” vinyl iron-on decal —I had my friend cut mine and she put the listing up here if you want one too.
* A 20 by 20 inch pillow form (the feather Ikea ones are my favorite and are under $10!)
* A 20 by 20 inch pillow form (the feather Ikea ones are my favorite and are under $10!)
Step 1: Find the center of one of your pieces of linen. I fold it in half and crease it with my fingernail and then fold it in half the other way to do the same thing. Where the folds intersect is your middle.
Step 2: Now at your ironing board, you are going to center your iron-on decal on the middle of your linen piece.
Then place a pillowcase (or lightweight fabric) over the top. Using a hot iron, iron over the top of pillowcase until it sets your vinyl.
(This takes a couple of minutes—so just keep moving your iron and going over each spot.)
You know your decal is down when the plastic pulls up VERY easily. If it doesn’t, just keep ironing until it does.
You should now have something that looks like this.
Step 3: Add your piping to the outside edges of the front pillow piece.
Step 4: Put your backing onto your pillow (I sewed a pocket on my pillow back first) and sew right sides together leaving a 5 inch opening to turn and flip.
(Please ignore the bulky crazy sewing line….I didn’t realize my bobbin was going beserk and I was too lazy to unpick the whole thing so I just sewed on top of it again…)
Step 4: Turn and flip your pillow right sides out and then stuff your pillow form into the opening at the bottom of your pillow. Hand sew this opening closed and you are done!
And now you have a gentle reminder sending someone some extra love…..and even a place to slip a love note in the back.
I even got the pillow on a particularly rough day last week and it made me tear up. It was a picture from an ever-so-cute 8 year old of mine…..and it did make me feel very special.
I think it’s going to be a great addition to our home! And you are ready to make your own easy-to-make pillow too!
~Elizabeth
What a sweet idea. And I love that it helped you through a hard day!
This is so sweet, I love it!
We had the red “you are special today” plate too!! I thought we were the only ones!! We just got to eat off it at dinner on our birthdays… I love the idea of doing it for just random reasons all throughout the year. And beautiful pillow!!! I gotta try the piping!
I think that is one of my fondest childhood memories is when my mom would break out that place. We would all fight over it (kinda defeated the purpose, huh?) but for now, I am just happy to add a “you are special” something to our house too!