I’ve made iron on pillows once before, to spruce up our place for the holidays, but I wanted to try it again using the Cricut to make the cutting process WAY easier and give me more design options.  I found some basic black iron on transfer at Michael’s, pillow cases at Hobby Lobby, and was off!

Iron On Pillows

What you’ll need:

• Iron on transfer paper
• Pillow cover
• Cricut
• Weeding tool
• Iron
• Ironing board
• Dish towel

First, decide on a design.  After way too much thought, I went the simple route and wrote out a phrase in Design Space.  When you’re ready to cut it out, make sure to click the box to reverse the design for iron on.  Extremely important step…  Also, put the iron on transfer paper on the mat shiny side down.  Then let the Cricut go to work!

Once your design is cut on the iron on transfer, you’ll need to “weed out” the extra around the letters.  I have a tool specifically for this that came with the Cricut.   It kinda reminds me of a dental tool, but makes the process a lot easier.

When you have weeded all the excess away, you’ll be left with a reversed view of your design.

Ready for a fail?  The first time I tried this, I wanted to iron the design on this cute chevron burlap pillow case I got at Hobby Lobby.  I should have known that iron + burlap = disaster… but didn’t, so I was pretty surprised to lift up the dish towel and see a terribly crinkly mess.  So what did I learn? Burlap based pillow cases are a no go with iron on.

Round two, this time with a cotton pillow case 🙂  Preheat the pillow where the design will go with your iron for a few seconds.  Then lay down the design, sticky side down so the design isn’t reversed, where you want it on the pillow.

Place a thin dish towel on top and iron.  Hold the iron for about 30 seconds, then lift and place on another part of the design.  When you’ve ironed the design, remove the dish towel and start to lift the clear backing of the iron on transfer away from the design.  If it’s still attached, iron it for a few more seconds until done.

Voila!  Your pillow is done and ready for an insert.

Not bad for my first second attempt at iron on pillows using the Cricut!  Since it does the cutting and has the backing to keep the design in place, this time around was much easier and more professional looking.  Using an exacto knife was way more time consuming and had more room for errors.

After making the love one, I put an anchor on a fun blue chevron fabric. This just got addicting..

What other phrases or designs should I put on pillows?  I’m thinking a fun Charleston one next… PS – You can find all my pillows in my Etsy shop!