It's a Man Thing, Jack

Hey, we are all to familiar with some of the sayings on Duck Dynasty , my husband especially. I decided to borrow a particular one from Phil to create a Happay, Happay, Happay birthday gift for Rich. Yes, you must spell it like it sounds to be truly authentic.  |

This past December, Rich got a 10 pointer deer. His brothers and others were disappointed he did not mount the deer head (I'm not one of the others).  I decided to make him something to remember the deer in addition to the quote from DD.

Out came the Cricut, some fabric and a pillow form. I've been wanting to try the heat transfer vinyl, so here was my chance.
I chose a fabric for the cover similar to that of white birch  to give it an outdoorsy look. The pillow form came from JoAnn Fabrics at 50% off.





I cut the fabric an inch larger than the pillow form and began by sewing the bottom of the fabric, right sides together, leaving an opening to stuff the pillow in when finished with the cover.




Next I opened the Cricut Craft Room Software and began designing what I was going to put on the pillow.  It's very important when using the heat transfer vinyl you flip your letters  and numbers. There are a number of different types of heat transfer vinyl.  I used the Cricut brand for the Happay lettering and  Neenah EPC Film from Amazon for the deer head. Follow the directions carefully for whatever vinyl you choose.

 When you are ready, fire up the Cricut and let it chirp away.

I ironed each of the designs on the pillow cover fabric using a pressing cloth. NEVER iron directly on to the vinyl.

After both sides of vinyl were cool, I sewed the remaining three sides with right sides together. Once trimmed and flipped , I stuffed the pillow inside and used a ladder stitch to finish it up. 

What do you think? Would the man in your life like something like this? I know a couple of relatives who are probably sooooo jealous.

Lessons Learned:

1. I can say as a result of this project I'm not a fan of the Cricut heat transfer vinyl. A couple days after the project was made, it started curling up on the edges. I've done iron ons before, and this stuff wasn't very good.

2. I do like the Neenah EPC Film. It seems lighter and adheres to the fabric so much better. However there is one little problem I didn't like. The Neenah EPC film was not as shiny as the Cricut vinyl.  You can see a little bit of the results in this photo. Neenah did suggest using a coated parchment paper to iron on over the film. I'm not ready to give up on it yet, not until I try the transfer paper.

Can you imagine the possibilities with heat transfer vinyl? I can.

And HEY, hope you have a happay, happay, happay day; Jack!