Welcome to day three of the Valentine tutorials!  I hope you are enjoying these projects and are making some of your own. I’d love to see them! There is a Flickr group where you can add your projects too!

Today’s project was inspired by that show from the 70’s “Love American Style” I was very young, but I remember the song.

What you’ll need:

A template of a heart (optional)

Needle and thread, sewing machine

Star embellishments or buttons

An assortment of red and white ribbon

**but if you only have one roll that’ll work and it’ll just look more uniform

5 1/2 inch squares in denim and white and a 10 1/2  inch rectangle also in white

Once you have your squares lay them out like this.

(Let me just say right now, that I am so happy with how this turned out!)

Approximate the size of your ribbons by laying them over the white fabric, you’ll want them to get “sewn” into the seam, arrange them in whatever order you like.  Before you start sewing the ribbons on, make sure you leave the ribbons lying on the mat the way you planned it.

 As you sew each ribbon on, you will stitch on each end of the ribbon as indicated by the arrows.   **IMPORTANT:  You will want to loosen the tension on your machine (I did 2 numbers less) to reduce puckering and give you the smoothest look. You may also lengthen the size of the stitch as well, for best results.

Once the ribbons are attached, trim off  the ends and sew your squares together, then the rectangle.  Don’t  forget to press ON THE BACKSIDE, just in case your ribbons can melt!

Now place your stencil over your flag for cutting.

CONFESSION: This came out so nice, I did not have the courage to cut my flag. So I kept it whole.  Maybe that disqualifies it as a Valentine project? But I do love the USA! I guess I’ll re-post this for the Fourth of July!

Next, sew on your star embellishments. I saw a cluster of stars in my mind instead of rows, love that!

I added some fusible interfacing to the back of the “flag” to give it some body.  Add a nice patterned, patriotic back and sew your pillow closed. You can use this zippered back tutorial from this post over at Amy made that!  I didn’t have a zipper so I opted for velcro!  I  like the freedom to take off the cover if I want to.

Then I measured the backing. The top panel measures 4 plus 1 3/4 for overlap and seam and the bottom 6 inches plus 1 3/4 inch for overlap and seam:  

Notice below the 1/4 inch seam I pressed for the overlap piece

 I inch overlap for the Velcro.

 Pay attention to how you sew the Velcro on. See below:

I made my own pillow insert.  You can also skip the Velcro and forget the insert and just stuff and close your pillow. I don’t like outward pillow seams though.

Close your Velcro, then with right sides together, pin back and front together and sew

using a 1/2 inch seam.

Turn simply by separating the Velcro, easy peasy!

Put your insert in the pillow.

 I was going to add Rick Rack or trim to the opening on the back, but I like the “invisible” look just fine.

Now I wish had an “All American” room…. Maybe in the Summer I can work on that!