Chevron Monogram Burlap Wreath

Today I wanted to share with y'all the burlap wreath that I made for our front door! A wreath was one of the 1st things on my to do list after we got all settled in {the outside of our place definitely needed a little sprucing up}. After one failed attempt that involved a vine wreath, I found this tutorial on Pinterest & knew it was just what I had been looking for. 

I got the burlap, floral wire, & "K" at Walmart, then picked up the wire wreath form from JoAnn's {I got the medium sized one}. 

I loosely followed this great tutorial to create my burlap masterpiece. Its very easy, you just have to play around with it until you are satisfied with how it looks. 

I previously painted my "K" for the failed vine wreath disaster…. I'm completely & utterly obsessed with chevron, so I knew that was what I wanted for my wreath. I used a straight edge & just winged it a bit. I chose a bright & summery color palate, but then after some complaining that it "looked Jamaican" from Micah, I distressed it with my antiquing gel, & I actually like it a lot better.

Once my wreath was done, I hot glued a piece of wire to the back of the "K" & attached it off center on my wreath. There were already screws in our door from a past resident, so I just popped it up there & voila! All in all, this took about 30 minutes to make, some patience, and about $10. Not too shabby, huh?

Embroidery Hoop Monogram

I know I promised an "after" reveal of our house.... but I have a few projects in the works, & I don't want to show you a half done place. So, instead, I'm going to go room by room. I think that's going to be much less overwhelming for me & everyone else! Today, however, I have a glimpse of our living room! I wanted to create a gallery wall behind our couch, & what gallery wall would be complete without a monogram?! {I told you I became a bit monogram obsessed after getting married!}

My first idea was for a framed monogram, but then I wanted something a bit more original. After browsing through JoAnn's for a while, I saw some embroidery hoops & genius struck!

I grabbed the medium sized one & hurried home. The hoop was raw wood, so I decided to paint it white. Then, I cut a piece of fabric left over from my button pillow project, fitted it, trimmed the edges & secured it to the back with hot glue. 

I'm obsessed with ombre right now. Obsessed. After seeing this project done by Mandi at Vintage Revivals, I decided to do a modern ombre on my K {which I picked up from the craft section at Walmart}.  I don't think all colors look good ombre.... but blue is one of the ones that do {at least in my opinion}, & I really love navy blue right now. I divided my K into 3 horizontal sections & painted the bottom section with a navy acrylic paint. Then mixed in white until I got the medium & light tints of blue that I wanted & painted those next. After everything was dry, I hot glued the K to to the fabric on my hoop & voila!! Custom, unique monogram.

Button Monogram Pillow

Being a newlywed, I am slightly obsessed with monograms. Particularly, my new one! Unfortunately, my darling hubby does not share my love of monograms. He calls them "the letters" & actively vocalizes how much he dislikes them. As you all know from my post For My Deer-est, I try to take into account both of our likes & dislikes when I'm planning projects, & ultimately when I decorate our house. But, this is one major exception! I saw this blog post on Pinterest about a monogramed button pillow, & I knew I had to make one for myself!


A few months ago, my awesome mother-in-law gave me her old sewing machine (which was originally her mother-in-law's as well!). We (Micah helped) finally got it up & running, so I've been chomping at the bit for a sewing project. I stumbled upon a great deal at Target the other day while I was aimlessly looking around. They had a whole aisle dedicated to curtains on sale, & I found this amazing Shabby Chic curtain for $13!  I have VERY big plans for this curtain, but we will cover more about that in a later post.

I love the burlap look of it! I decided my first project with it was going to be making a button pillow. So, I made a trip to my local JoAnn's & picked up the necessities. After some browsing, I found a box of assorted buttons, which was just what I was looking for. You could also get buttons in the same hue or color family, but I wanted an eclectic mix. I also picked up some thread... as a sewing beginner, my supplies are seriously lacking. I found a very helpful blog for sewing newbies like myself that outlined what you need. She recommended a high quality thread, like Gutterman Natural Cotton Thread, in a neutral color. The natural cotton is a little pricy, so I went with a spool of the polyester in Col. 512.

Once I had those two key items, I got started on the design. First, I unpacked my curtain & figured out the size I wanted my pillow to be. I measured a throw pillow that came with our couch to gauge what I wanted mine to be. It was 17"x17", so I measured out & cut my fabric at 18"x18" to give myself some leeway while I was sewing it up. My squares were all wrinkled from being folded in packaging, so I went ahead & ironed them before I started anything else.

Then, I found a K that I liked by searching on Google (of course!). I enlarged & printed it out, but it wasn't quite as big as I wanted so I freehanded the same K on a blank sheet of paper. I cut it out to create a template, pinned it to the center of my fabric, & traced it with a pencil. A pencil wasn't necessarily the best thing to use, since the lines are still faintly visible, but I was working with what I had. I think I'm going to invest in a few Pilot Frixion pens that have ink that disappears when heated with an iron, as is also suggested in the sewing beginners blog post.

Once I had a pattern to follow, I got to work! I started out by picking a few buttons I liked & arranging them on the K, starting in the center. From there, I worked my way out along the rest in small sections, hand stitching the buttons. I tried to mix the colors & sizes of the buttons up. It doesn't matter if it looks perfect either... believe me, its impossible to get it perfect! To make things a little easier, I doubled up my thread on my needle so I could cut down on how many times I stitched through the button holes without worrying about the buttons not being secure.


I'm not going to lie.... this process is SLOW, but remember the classic story about the Tortoise and the Hare. My patience most definitely paid off! (And your's will too!)


Once I was satisfied with my finished monogram, I pinned the two pieces of fabric together. (Remember to do that with the buttons facing in - VIP!) I used my same thread to sew with my machine as well. Now remember, this is my very first sewing project with a machine (eeek!), so I'm not really going to go into all the details, because I am by no means an expert. I was just excited that my stitches weren't completely wonky! I sewed up 3 of the sides completely, & then did about 3/4 of the 4th side (This is so I can stuff the pillow & hand stitch the little hole up). I made sure I left the gap on the bottom of my pillow so it would be less noticeable.


I stuffed the pillow with Poly-Fil that I also got from JoAnn's & stitched up the hole. Voila!! A brand-spanking-new monogramed pillow! All in all, this little project cost me about $25 to make... but I will also be using the same fabric for a few other projects. I am pretty much in love with my pillow, & I'm pretty proud of myself (if I do say so myself) for my first sewing project! I hope y'all like it as much, too. :)