With a name like Barb, you are bound to get the "Barbie" moniker attached to you.  Fortunately, my mom, Barb, loves everything Barbie...  not the dolls, mind you, but the name.   Along with that, she is all about the pinkness and fluffiness.

To that end, I wanted to surprise her with something unique so, being a thriftaholic, I looked around my sewing studio to see if I had something to get me started and lo and behold, I SPY something black, and something pink and fluffy!!!

What to do; what to do??

Well, of course, something "Barbie" like!!  And pillow like.  I finally settle on a heart shape for the pillow though a pillow case did cross my mind.  However, I didn't want the pillow either lumpy looking or looking like an overfilled balloon so I knew some adjustments to the standard PILLOWMAKING 101 would be required.

So I develop a "Barbie" like font template and reverse printed it onto a piece of Sharon's Secret Foundation (PurpleDaisiesQuilting.com or SharonSchaumber.com)

I then glue basted and warm iron pressed black felt to the wrong side of the foundation paper and carefully cut the black Barbie and the foundation paper.  Looking at the black felt, it should read correctly at this point.

I cut a piece of pink fluffy fabric, in a heart shape, a couple inches wider than the "Barbie" and backed it with a piece of foundation slightly bigger than the font. 

Thus, I have, from the top, a black felt "Barbie: RSU, a heart shaped pink fluffy pillow fabric RSU, and a foundation attached to the back of the pillow fabric.

As the black felt/foundation piece is fairly stiff, I pin basted it all the way through to the back foundation paper to begin, thinking if it didn't stay put, I would hand baste it to the pillow.

Using a Quilt Halo (SharonSchaumber.com) and black top thread and white bottom thread, even though I knew the bottom MIGHT show through on the top I did the narrowed zig zag on the very edge of the black felt.  Honestly, I decided that the heart fabric was fluffy enough to hold the visible part to a minimum.

Which it did....  but I think I just got lucky!

After picking most of the foundation paper from the back of the heart, I assembled the heart.  Of course, the front and back of the pillow are the same size, but I also (ADJUSTMENT #1) added a 4" "boxing" strip.  

I wasn't sure how much of the strip I would need as both the heart and the strip fabrics were stretchy.   I did my best guess on how much to stretch and in the correct spots and sewed the front and strip together, RST.  

I than pinned the back to the strip, lining up the point at the top and bottom of the heart with the same spot on the strip where it was sewn to the pillow front.  I sewed around, leaving about a 6" opening on a flat side near the bottom of the heart.

Time to stuff. (ADJUSTMENT #2).  As I didn't want it lumpy, which is common for this type of item when filled with poly fiberfill. I tried to think outside the box regarding stuffing.

When the lightbulb above my head came on, I was ready.


I cut 4 hearts SLIGHT LARGER than the finished size of the pillow from some leftover, and slightly stiff polyester batting.  I baste sewed around the outside of both sets of batting hearts, leaving about 4" opening on the flat side of each set .

I then stuffed the batting hearts and sewed them closed with a quick running stitch, by hand.  I pushed the batting hearts, one at a time, into the pillow, making sure the top and bottom points were matching up.  Once both batting hearts were inside, I slipstitched the opening closed and VIOLA!!

Of course, I made a companion, but nameless, "Midge" pillow for Barbie.  I seemed only right.

I really loved doing this project.  I learned new techniques and crazy loved the end products.