Vintage Postcard Pillow

I have this adorable little vintage Thanksgiving postcard that I bought in an antique shop in Plymouth, Massachusetts about four years ago. It has a drawing on it of a Pilgrim family and the Mayflower, and there is a little poem written on it. The poem reads...

Thanksgiving

What am I thankful for today

For strength to walk on the world's highway

For a hope to hold and a work to do

And the blessing of a friend like you

The postcard sits out in a frame at Thanksgiving time, but the postcard is so small that you don't really notice it. I started thinking about how I could draw more attention to it. I've been seeing all these projects lately where people print directly from their inkjet printer onto fabric, so I decided to give it a try. Here's what happens when you enlarge a cute vintage postcard and print it on some muslin...

It turns into a pillow!

This may be my favorite pillow so far. I've read about printing on fabric on several blogs, but I'll send you to this tutorial because it has lots of pictures. In order to be able to print on your fabric, you have to iron a piece of freezer paper onto the back of it first. That's really about it! If you want the image to be permanent and washable, you need special ink or a product called Bubble Jet Set that you treat the fabric with first.

When I think of Thanksgiving, I always think of brown, but the postcard uses black, so I had to go with a black fabric border. I was going to go directly to the green after that, but both the black and green fabric are so dark that I decided to try a second border with a lighter colored fabric (left over from my first Sadie Shirt), and I'm really glad I did. It gives the pillow a little extra something.

The back is plain muslin with an envelope closure. And I added a homemade tag, of course. I've had a couple of requests for more information on how I do these, so I think I may do a post about it in the next couple of weeks.

So my little framed postcard went from this...

to this...

I love this pillow. I wish it was going to sit out for more than two weeks, but I have something to look forward to when I get out the Thanksgiving decorations next year!

Linking up here: