Fall Pillow Tutorial Autumn Leaves

Learn how to make this awesome Autumn Leaves and Pumpkin Please fall pillow. It’s the perfect neutral fall decor to carry you from Halloween to Thanksgiving!

I love decorating with simple envelope pillows. It is so easy to make and switch up envelope pillow cases depending on the season

What You Need to Make a Fall Pillow 

You can use this basic tutorial and change up the designs easily to make pillow covers for any holiday or to suit your own personal decor preferences.

I’ve made awesome Christmas pillows, fun flirty Valentine’s Day pillow cases, St. Patrick’s Day pillows, and awesome Big Bow pillow cases that can be switched up for every day use or to coordinate with special decor.

• Pillow Form (I used a 16″ square pillow)
• Ivory Fabric (I used a piece of fabric 16″x 36″)
• Iron-on Vinyl
• Weeding Tools (optional)
• Cricut Explore or Maker Cutting Machine
• Iron or Heat Press
• Autumn Leaves and Pumpkin Please design
• Orange scrap of fabric
• Heat ‘n’ Bond scrap
• Green Thread

Prep the Autumn Leaves Design

First thing to do is set up the design. You could use the Autumn design how it comes with black and orange vinyl but I decided to edit it a bit and add some little applique details. I love the extra texture it adds.

1. Upload the Autumn leaves design. Use the SVG. 
2. Resize the design. I used a 16×16 pillow form and made my image 8×8. Make turn off the proportion lock by clicking the lock image.
3. Remove the pumpkin part of the image (although you can just use that instead of adding a fabric pumpkin). Do this by clicking on the pumpkin part of the image and clicking the eye.
4. Add in a pumpkin (you will make the fabric pumpkin iron-on patch with this). I used #M41037 for the pumpkin shape which was free in Cricut Design Space but you can use any pumpkin you like. Adjust the size to 2 inches tall.
5. Cut a piece a vinyl I always do a bit bigger than the image so this time I did a 9×9 square. 

How to Use Iron-On Vinyl 

I love using Iron-On Vinyl it is also called heat transfer vinyl.

It’s really easy to personalize almost anything made of fabric and you can use these same steps.

1. Place the vinyl shiny side down on the cutting mat (the shinny side is the carrier plastic, you want it to cut the vinyl not the plastic). 
2. Select make the project.
3. Load the mat into the machine. 
4. Make sure the words part of the project is selected.
5. Select “mirror image” since you’re cutting from the back side this will ensure that the words are the right directions after you iron them down.
6. Select “everyday iron-on vinyl” this will do what is called a kiss cut and only cut the vinyl while leaving the carrier plastic in tact so that you can position the design easily. 
7. Cut by pressing the Cricut button.
8. Unload the mat and pull the vinyl off.
9. Carefully separate the negative spaces and weed any little pieces of vinyl that aren’t in the actual design (ex. the inside of o’s and a’s). I like these weeding tools.
10. Find the center front of the pillow case (I like to fold in half both directions to find the center). And find the center of the vinyl you just cut. Lay it on the pillow case fabric. 
11. Iron by holding the iron in place and using pressure (just follow the directions on your vinyl). Alternatively you can use a Cricut easy press or a heat press to do this.
12. Slowly pull away the carrier plastic. If the vinyl isn’t stuck in place iron more.

How to Make A Fabric Iron-On

This is what I did before iron-on vinyl was a thing.

I mean maybe it was a thing for professionals before but basic crafting if I wanted a design cut from my Cricut I had to make a fabric patch of sorts.

1. Find your pumpkin fabric and iron heat n bond to the back side. Press and hold until the glue is melted and sealed to the fabric.
2. Place the piece paper side down on the Cricut cutting mat.
3. Cut the image using a “medium card stock” setting. 
4. Unload the mat and pull the cut pumpkin free.
5. Cut off the stem.
6. Position on the pillow fabric between the vinyl wording.
7. Lay a thin piece of fabric over the vinyl and pumpkin and iron the pumpkin in place. This is important so you don’t melt the vinyl since you’ve already removed the carrier plastic.

Applique the Pumpkin Detail

This next step is not necessary for function. The heat n bond is strong enough that it should hold together even through the wash.

But I love the way the applique detail just adds to the project.

1. Cut off the stem part of the pumpkin fabric patch.
2. Place it on the pillow fabric and cover with a piece of fabric to protect the vinyl from scorching. Iron the pumpkin patch through the fabric. 
3. Using a disappearing fabric marker draw on a stem and vine lines.
4. Using green thread stitch back and forth to make a stem and over the vines twice to make the detailing stand out. Make sure to backstitch at the start and finish just to keep things secure.

How to Make a Fall Pillow

Now that you have the pillow decorated you are going to make the basic envelope pillow. This is a great sewing project for beginners since it consists of just a couple straight lines of sewing.

1. If the long edges of your pillow case fabric are the selvage edges of the fabric (finished from being on the bolt) you can move on. Otherwise simply roll under the short edges twice to make a very narrow hem. 
2. Fold the short ends of the pillow case onto itself making sure to keep the design centered.
3. You want the folded fabric to be the size of your pillow (this way the pillow will fill it out once the pillow case is sewn).  
4. You should have a few inches overlapping to form the envelop this is how you will get the pillow form in. Pin the places the fabric overlays at both edges.
5. Sew or serge a straight line to close the top edge of the pillow case.
6. Repeat with the bottom edge.
7. Turn the pillow case right side out and stuff with your pillow form. 

Fun and easy right? I’m addicted to making pillow cases for all the holidays. 

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