Buttons!

I have been meaning to make new throw pillows for our couch and bed for a few months now.  Everytime I head to the fabric store for a costume or some other sewing project, I check out the remnants room and usually find something that I love (good thing I have lots of storage in my sewing room!).  I have also been obtaining pillow forms for some time now with grand plans to sprinkle throw pillows all over the house.
One important thing to note with every throw pillow I make, I put a zipper down one side so it is completely removable and every supply that I use is machine washable.  This means that I can change out the covers as I get bored and wash them as they get dirty.

The first pillow that I am working on is the most labor intensive by far.  I saw this image on crafting a greener world: 

It was over.  I was sold, I swooned.  I became obsessed with googling pictures of button monogrammed throw pillows.  On my button pillow, I wanted to do a 3 (to represent the members of our family: Matt, myself, and the pup).  This pillow was made out of white buttons and some leftover white linen dyed a dark blue-ish gray.  Note:  I am still thinking about making a 4 pillow if and when we have a kiddo. 

The cost for this throw pillow was minimal.  I already had the fabric (leftover from the roman shades I am making for the front room), I had the dye (but it only runs about $2 a box at JoAnns if you want to try this project yourself), I already had the thread, I already had all of the white buttons (I've been sewing for a long time and had collected a few small containers full of buttons over the years.).  The pillow forms I have were each less than $5 (I get my pillow forms from Hancock fabrics or JoAnn fabrics if they're having a sale, or from Atlanta Thread Company if I'm making a large-ish purchase and can justify paying for shipping).  The fabric paint was $1.19 at Michaels.  For the 3, I used Elephant font, bolded.

After I printed out the number, I traced it onto the cleaned and dried gray dyed linen.  With the text traced on the pillows, I used white fabric paint to fill in the number a little bit.  I did this only so that if I did leave any gaps or a button falls off in the future, it'll still look okay until I notice and fix it.  Here is my 3 traced on and painted very lightly with iridescent white fabric paint:

Then, I laid out my buttons and just started sewing. 

I'm still sewing on buttons, but when it's done, I just have to sew on the back, put the zipper on, and put it on the pillow form.  I'll update with pictures when it's all done.