Have you seen those adorable deer silhouette pillows?

Me too! I fell in love! 

I have been looking for a theme for our living room that would be both chic with a bit of a masculine twist for Jake.
Again, love.

I found some pillows on Etsy but nothing exactly how I invisioned. Plus I wanted two different silhouettes.

First I picked out my material...
I got my material from Hobby Lobby; Duck clothe for my chevron patterned pillows, 8.99/yd and canvas for my deer pillows, 9.99/yd. Both materials are great for the couch because they are stiffer and can handle a little more wear and tear.

 I didn't mind the cost for them to last longer!

I used the current pillow covers to come up a template; so helpful!

I started by turning my fabric in on itself, pattern sides facing each other. I cut enough fabric to leave a 1/4" to 1" of extra fabric around the edges for my seam. To save myself some sewing I didn't sew on the folded side, because it wasn't necessary.
I wanted my pillows to have hidden zippers to add class but also to allow me to easily take them off when I need to wash them. Remember I have dogs?

To insure your hidden zipper is accessible you need to make sure your zipper pull is also facing the inside, with the pattern portion, of the pillow.
As you can see in the picture above I folded the top flap of fabric back up about and inch/inch and a half. I attached the zipper with pins and sewed the top portion first, about 1/4 " away from the zipper. The bottom flap I sewed the other end of the zipper to without folding up up.

The sides of the pillow I sewed a 1/4'' seam down. I only had to sew two sides and the bottom with the zipper because I used the top as the fold. 

Once the pillow is flipped right side out the seams disappear and the zipper is hardly visible. 

It was much easier to figure out while looking at the original pillow cases that the couch came with. Thank goodness for those!
I went ahead and made one other chevron patterned pillow and two plain canvas pillows for my deer silhouettes. 

I choose my deer silhouettes from Google. 

Yup, Google.

I believe I just searched deer silhouettes; there were plently to choose from. 

I chose the bottom two images, one of a doe and fawn and the other of a buck.
For my first attempt I actually pencil scetched on my canvas and painted on mustard fabric paint. That worked for a little while but some of my pencil marks were visable and after I washed them the paint looked weird. Blah! 

Don't you love learning from my mistakes?

I loved my second option though...

I bought some stiff, felt like mustard fabric. I got it at Joeanne's for $5.00 ish...sorry, that is just a guess.

I got out my images and traced larger versions on my felt, cut them out and positioned them where I wanted, grabbed my fabric glue and smothered that baby down. I also did some securing stiches around the outline of my silhouetes. 

I am happy to say that I have had them for a couple months now and they are holding up fantastically!
Wa-laaa! Beautiful shabby chic living room upgrade!

I believe it was $50 ish total for the four pillows; zippers & material. 

If you look for pillows in retail stores one pillow can easily be $30 if not more. 
Pretty happy with myself...