M is for MONOGRAM!!!

 You know when you see something and think...I CAN MAKE THAT!!! NO PROBLEM!!!  And then you buy all of the supplies and get started and think....WHY DID I THINK I COULD DO THIS????  This was one of THOSE projects.  Well on the Christmas List of a certain favorite person of mine, who may or may not have a name starting with M, was a simple little monogram pillow.  Now I KNEW that Lady M had had her eye on these monograms for a while because she had blogged about it, pinned it, and then of course it showed up on THE LIST.  SOOOOO I looked on PINTEREST and found sooo many cute ones.  THEN I looked on ETSY and saw SOOO many cute ones.  BUT they were all neutral colors and they were a little spendy.  NOW I KNOW WHY!!!!  HELLO you have to sew on all of those *#@& buttons. 

 Anyway...I have very little advice for you if you would like to make one of your own (run, run like the wind!!!!).  EXCEPT I would say this...do not make the pillow first.  WHY???? because then you have to put your hand in the flap the whole time to sew on EVERY....SINGLE...BUTTON.  No Bueno!!!
Here is a quick rundown of what I did..,..just in case you still are crazy enough to make your own...
1.  Find a font you like in word and print out the letter in the size you want.  Cut it out.
2.  Place the letter where you want it on the fabric.  I had already made my pillow, so I put it right in the middle. If you are going to make the pillow after (might be easier to sew on buttons) then you will have to measure and mark where the middle will be. 
3.  Trace the letter with a disappearing pen.   BE SMARTER THAN ME AND REALIZE THAT DARK FABRIC=IMPOSSIBLE TO SEE!!!  I used a combination of disappearing ink and chalk pencil.
4.  Start on one corner and sew on your first button.  Work your way around the edge.  If you try to fill it in while you go it makes it hard to form a good outside border later.  I found it worked best to go along an outside edge and THEN fill in the middle.  I DID place a few of the BIG buttons throughout at the beginning and then worked around them. 
5.  Sew your buttons continuously.  Meaning...don't cut your thread after each one.  Sew on one, knot it off, and then move onto the next one.  This saves SOOO much time. 
6.  Take a break so that your poor dead finger will not FALL OFF!!!  Get some hot chocolate....read a magazine...anything to get your mind off of those buttons!!!!
7.  Continue sewing on buttons until you wanna die.  AND then you should be about done!!! YAY!!!

I would also say this....make a wall hanging instead and just GLUE the darned buttons on.  TRUST ME!!!

OK.. on a serious note though.  I bought the fabric HERE on Etsy.  It is Michael Miller and I DO LOVE THIS PART!!!

I also bought some of the buttons on Etsy, but most of them didn't make it here on time, so I just went to JOANN and picked out some that I liked. 

I used THIS great tutorial for making the envelope pillows.  This was my VERY first envelope pillow, and now I want to make a HUNDRED for my couch.  It seriously took about 10 minutes!!!  LOVE how easy it was.  The tutorial even gives directions for how to figure out how much fabric to cut to make OTHER sizes.  I looked around and THIS was the best TUTE....Trust me!!!

So if there is someone in your life who you LOVE more than your fingertips OR if you just love yourself A LOT and only kinda like your fingertips, then go ahead and whip one of these up today.  ORRR if you don't love anybody that much....maybe just a nice plain pillow would suffice....

GOOD THING I LOVE MY MARCIE!!!!