Quick and easy pillow DIY

I've struggled with what kind of pillows to use on the sofa downstairs because the idea for the whole room is for it to resemble a sports bar.  All the decor is sports related in the room so we can't really throw in a pillow with an overly "homey" look to it.  Brad and I both love sports, especially the Razorbacks and the Chicago Bears.  Our love of those two teams has created somewhat of a challenge with decorating though.  Red, white, blue, and orange don't go together so well.  But we're not changing teams so I'm going to have to get creative. My friend Ashley was over a couple weeks ago and I asked her opinion on pillows and she suggested chevron.  I love chevron but don't really use it in my house because it's a little too bold.  It's also super trendy which I try to stay away from.  But I think it could work well in the basement.

I was in Hobby Lobby a couple weeks ago and found chevron pillow covers in the fabric area.  I didn't even know they had pillow covers in that area.

These were super cheap ($6.99) and they had several colors.  I think this is actually black but it looks dark gray to me. 

I liked the pillow just like it was but I had cut an image of Arkansas out for another project so I thought I'd cut the shape out of red felt to put on the pillow.  

The Mississippi River is no fun to cut out, by the way.

After I got the shape cut out, I wasn't sure how to attach it to the pillow.  I thought about trying to iron it on somehow but I'm not sure you can even iron felt and I guess I didn't feel like googling it to find out. I also thought about sewing it on but I didn't want to go to Wal Mart to buy red thread.   So I just back stitched it on there with some cross stitch thread I already had. I like how it turned out even though the stitches aren't even and the state is crooked.   But it cost me less than $7.50 since I already had the pillow insert, so I think I can live with the imperfection.

I'm considering doing one in the shape of Illinois for the Bears too.  But for now I'm still hung up on the colors not going together.