It started with a vintage sampler in a crumbling frame at an estate sale of what I felt was a very sad house.

The sampler was pretty but the lady who had stitched it had not framed it right. It was also stained under the frame. I started by removing the frame. Underneath, the masking tape to keep the fringes from unraveling while stitching had never been removed. When I removed it, the sampler was sticky.

So I soaked the sampler in Restoration fabric restorer for 24 hours. It came completely clean and the sticky residue was gone!

I blocked and air dried and then ironed the sampler and gave it a bit of starch. I did not iron directly on the embroidered sampler, I put a clean towel on top of the sampler and ironed it that way.

Then I measured out an ultrasuede remnant I had and pinned out my sampler on it’s reverse. I stitched it by hand on three sides and stuffed it with a bag of poly-fil stuffing, and stitched the top closed.

I ordered some fringe trim, but the first batch wasn’t right so that will get used on another project. I have another kind of trim on the way, a close out remnant which hopefully be perfect.

This was an experiment for me because years ago I made a pillow from an embroidered sampler I had stitched and really liked it so I wanted to try it again with a vintage sampler that was lovely but I did not want to reframe it.

Now mind you, I would never do this with an antique sampler, but a found vintage sampler is a different story.

This is not a pillow that suits everyone’s taste but it’s an adaptive reuse of a vintage item that would save someone’s handiwork from ending up in the trash somewhere.

It’s really easy to put a vintage sampler pillow together because the hard part, the embroidering, has already been done for you.

I will also tell you I do love crewel and regular embroidery. I have made a few pillows in my day.

In the photo below, the top left was stitched by me when I was either 10 or 11. To the right is a pillow where I drew the design and embroidered it. The lower right is a pillow I stitched with colors I preferred versus what the old crewel kit came with. That pillow actually has an identical reverse because I found two of the same crewel embroidery kits one time at a church rummage sale and I decided to put them together.

Rainy day stitching is fun and I am glad I had time for my pillow this afternoon. Being creative is like gardening- it’s good for you! Next I will tackle a couple of vintage quilts I am restoring.

Thanks for stopping by.