DIY Grinch Pillow–A Pottery Barn Knock-Off

December 6, 2016
Check out this awesome Grinch Pillow--a Pottery Barn Knock Off!

My favorite, only sister loves the Grinch a whole lot.

I, on the other hand, do not.

But she wanted this pillow with all it’s sequins and shine,

I thought she was silly, the price was so high!

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But, her birthday was coming and I knew what to wrap,

I searched for the pillow, but they were all gone in a snap!

What can I do, they are all sold out?

So I brainstormed and pondered and let out a shout!

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I can make one myself, I’m a DIYer after all.

So I headed to the craft store right next to the mall.

I bought a few bags of sequins, red and white,

And a Sharpie that on fabric it claimed to write.

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I traced out a face with a Santa hat dangling,

And my needle and thread repeatedly tangling,

Hand stitching each and every tiny sequin with love,

I sewed her a pillow cover that fit like a glove.

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What’s better than store bought, you ask so sincerely,

A homemade and thought felt gift, clearly.

So I will show you how I made this cute cover,

Just follow the steps and you will discover.

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Okay, I’m done.  I can’t rhyme anymore.  There towards the end it got a little weird, so I figured I need to stop while I was ahead.

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So if you can decipher my attempt to Dr. Seuss (I’m making “Dr. Seuss” a verb…) my story of how I made my sister a Grinch pillow, you may have gathered that basically my sister wanted this pillow cover.  But it was $40!! And it didn’t even include the pillow!  But when they had a Cyber Monday sale, I decided to go ahead and buy it for her for her birthday anyway.  But when I clicked on it, it said they were NO LONGER AVAILABLE?!

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So I put my thinking cap on and decided to make one for her myself.  It was super easy, just time consuming with ALL. THE. SEQUINS. But it’s totally worth it.  Trust me.

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This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.  For more information, see disclosure policy.

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First, you will need the following:

Drop cloth (or other fabric of your choice for the pillow cover)

Scissors

Black Stained Sharpie pen 

A couple sheets of plain 8×11 paper

Clear tape

Red and white sequins (you’ll only need one bag of each. I used 8mm sequins from the craft store, but here is a link to some on Amazon if you’d rather buy online)

Red and white thread

Needle

Pins and sewing machine

AND LOTS OF PATIENCE.

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Check out this awesome Grinch Pillow--a Pottery Barn Knock Off!

Here’s how it’s done:

I found the picture of the pillow on the website and copied it into Microsoft Word.  For legal reasons, I refrain from putting anyone else’s picture on my blog.  So I’m not showing this step.  But I sized the picture of the pillow in Word at 18″x18″.  Then I rotated it sideways and put only the bottom part of the picture on the blank page.  Make sure your view is zoomed to 100%.

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I placed a blank sheet of paper on the screen and LIGHTLY (don’t damage your screen) traced the outline of the face.

Check out this awesome Grinch Pillow--a Pottery Barn Knock Off!

Check out this awesome Grinch Pillow--a Pottery Barn Knock Off!

Then I moved the picture so that the top part of the pillow was on the blank page and traced again on a new sheet of paper.

Check out this awesome Grinch Pillow--a Pottery Barn Knock Off!

Once I had it traced out, I lined it up and taped the pieces together and used a Sharpie marker to make the lines thick and dark.

Check out this awesome Grinch Pillow--a Pottery Barn Knock Off!

I wanted an 18×18″ pillow cover, so I cut a piece of drop cloth material (I keep this on hand because it’s awesome for all kinds of projects) at about 18 1/2×18 1/2″ (leave room to sew) and taped the drawing onto the back (notice I taped it so the image is mirrored).

Check out this awesome Grinch Pillow--a Pottery Barn Knock Off!

Then I taped it onto my back door when the sun was shining bright outside and traced with a pen.  Ignore the cat…you’re lucky only one of them got in the picture haha.

Check out this awesome Grinch Pillow--a Pottery Barn Knock Off!

I took it off the window and over to the kitchen table and used my Stained Sharpie pen to color in the lines.

Check out this awesome Grinch Pillow--a Pottery Barn Knock Off!

Then I began hand stitching the sequins on.  I used red thread for the red sequins and white thread for the white sequins.  I filled all the areas where there weren’t black lines.

Check out this awesome Grinch Pillow--a Pottery Barn Knock Off!

Check out this awesome Grinch Pillow--a Pottery Barn Knock Off!

Check out this awesome Grinch Pillow--a Pottery Barn Knock Off!

Check out this awesome Grinch Pillow--a Pottery Barn Knock Off!

Check out this awesome Grinch Pillow--a Pottery Barn Knock Off!

I felt like the Grinch when he is sewing his Santa outfit in the cartoon while I was stitching these on.  Appropriate haha.

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Once you have all the sequins on, here comes the sewing part.  I’m just winging it, so you may want to read tutorials on this that are better than mine, but I cut two pieces for the back side of the pillow both the same height as the front piece (18 1/2″) but, cut their width so that one piece overlaps the other a few inches.

Check out this awesome Grinch Pillow--a Pottery Barn Knock Off!

Check out this awesome Grinch Pillow--a Pottery Barn Knock Off!

I pinned around the edges and sewed around all sides with my sewing machine.

Check out this awesome Grinch Pillow--a Pottery Barn Knock Off!

Then turned it right side out.

Check out this awesome Grinch Pillow--a Pottery Barn Knock Off!

I stuffed an 18×18 pillow I had laying around into the back and that’s it!

Check out this awesome Grinch Pillow--a Pottery Barn Knock Off!

Check out this awesome Grinch Pillow--a Pottery Barn Knock Off!

Check out this awesome Grinch Pillow--a Pottery Barn Knock Off!

Check out this awesome Grinch Pillow--a Pottery Barn Knock Off!

Check out this awesome Grinch Pillow--a Pottery Barn Knock Off!

So what do you think?  My sister loves it, which is really all that matters.  BUT, Danny loves it too…which it must be awesome to get Danny’s stamp of approval.  He doesn’t give that to every project I do haha.

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Let me know what you think!  And if you want to make one yourself, you guys better get to stitching because you only have a few weeks left before Christmas!  Be sure to pin for later 🙂

Check out this awesome Grinch Pillow--a Pottery Barn Knock Off!

Until next time, happy DIYing! And Merry Christmas 🙂

Written by

Shara is a math nerd with a passion for corny jokes, coffee, power tools, and building things in the woodshop.

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20 Comment

  1. Cecilia
    December 7, 2016 at 8:31 am

    I think you’re an awesome sister. The pillow turned out great too. ? Love your attempt to Dr. Seuss! Too cute.

    1. Shara, Woodshop Diaries
      December 7, 2016 at 1:34 pm

      Thanks friend!! 🙂

  2. Linda
    December 7, 2016 at 8:23 pm

    I’m going to take your process and make some drop cloth pillow covers with musical notes of differing sizes – LOVE the idea of drawing the image from online! Love the idea of putting them up on a door to trace!!! You get a dozen Atta Girls for that idea alone!!!

    LOVE your blog!

    1. Shara, Woodshop Diaries
      December 8, 2016 at 8:12 am

      Thank you so much! The music note pillow covers sound like a super cute idea!

  3. Kate
    December 7, 2016 at 11:01 pm

    I come here for the wood projects but holy crap I didn’t know you could sew and rhyme too! I’m so impressed.

    1. Shara, Woodshop Diaries
      December 8, 2016 at 8:13 am

      HAHA thank you! I didn’t even know I could rhyme, myself! Thanks so much for following along 🙂

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    […] ends up being sold out right as you get ready to buy it? You’d DIY it! Shara from the Woodshop Diaries ran into this problem with a beautiful Dr. Seuss Grinch pillow from Pottery Barn. Originally the […]

  5. Jean
    January 8, 2017 at 12:06 pm

    Love, love, LOVE this!! I have loved the Grinch since it came out 50 years ago! I have many Grinch (and other Suess) items and apparel. In fact, while writing this I’m wearing my fuzzy, green, Grinch jammie shirt! I took a picture of it but it wouldn’t paste it with this comment. Thanks for the idea! You should sell them!!

    1. Shara, Woodshop Diaries
      January 9, 2017 at 8:15 am

      Thank you! It was a really fun project!

  6. Sylvia
    February 1, 2017 at 7:09 pm

    Thank you for the Grinch pillow project! I did things for a Grinch Christmas, for my grandsons, they would love the Grinch pillow!

    1. Shara, Woodshop Diaries
      February 2, 2017 at 8:11 am

      So glad you enjoyed the project!! 🙂

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