Tutorial | The Fox Says... | by Plum and June

Today we're so thrilled to share this adorable applique pillow tutorial from Plum and June.  Beth took the fox from the 'Cut and Sew Dolls' panel print from the Acorn Trail collection and used it as an applique!  And it works out great right!  Keep on reading for the tutorial.

I was so excited to see that Teagan White was designing a new collection for Birch - especially since I absolutely loved working with her first collection, Fort Firefly. I like how her new collection, Acorn Trail, brings back "Penny" and all her forest friends. For this tutorial, I used a fussy cut fox from the cut and sew panel. I can actually see a whole collection of pillows using this panel and featuring the other animals from the panel and even Penny, herself!

Materials: 
Fussy cut fox from Cut and Sew Dolls
Fat Quarter of Birch Mod Basics in Cream
Fat Quarter of Birch Mod Basics in Pool
Fat Quarter of Tonal Floral in Adobe
1/2 yard of fabric of choice for pillow back
1/2 yard of fabric of choice for backing inside the pillow (won't be visible after pillow is finished)
18" pillow insert
20" x 20" piece of batting

Make the pillow top
1. Cut the following from your fabrics:    
from cream:  12 1/2" x 12 1/2" square    
from pool:  2 strips 1 1/2" x 12 1/2" and 2 strips 1 1/2" x 14 1/2"    
from floral: 1 1/2" x 14 1/2", 1 1/2" x 17 1/2", 2 1/2" x 14 1/2", 2 1/2" x 17 1/2"

2. Sew the two smaller pool strips to either side of the center. Press.

3. Sew the remaining pool strips to the top and bottom of the center. Press.

4. Sew the 1 1/2" x 14 1/2" floral strip to the right side of the center and the 2 1/2" x 14 1/2" floral strip to the left side. Press.

5. Sew the 2 1/2" x 17 1/2" floral strip to the top of the center and the 1 1/2" x 17 1/2" floral strip to the bottom. Press and trim to 17 1/2" square.

6. Make a quilt sandwich with the just completed pillow top, batting, and inside pillow fabric and quilt in your preferred design. If you look closely at my photos, you might notice that I used the quilt-as-you-go (qayg) method to sew my pillow top log cabin style. Either method will work for this pillow - just choose your favorite!

Applique the fox You can use your favorite applique technique to sew the fox to the pillow top. I used raw edge applique. The characters on the cut and sew dolls panel have a stitching line printed on the fabric. To use the raw edge applique technique that I used, you'll want to fussy cut the fox right inside of those lines. To temporarily secure the fox to the pillow top, I used a washable glue stick. I didn't want my needle to sew through the glue so I was careful to not apply any of the glue near the edges. I then stitched close to the edge of the fox using a straight stitch - that means that I most likely will soon have some frayed edges around the fox - I don't mind but if you would rather this not happen, I'd recommend using a zig zag stitch (this wasn't an option for me since my sewing machine is straight stitch only.)

Finish the pillow using your preferred method. I used the envelope method which I described in the tutorial I wrote for Birch's Frolic fabric line recently.

Thank you Beth for sharing this super creative way to use the Cut And Sew Dolls from Acorn Trail.  We think this darling pillow will cute'n up practically any space!