DIY Faux Flower Hand Knit Pillow

Easy & thrifty Do-It-Yourself decor is always a win!  Today I'm sharing how I made this gorgeous little throw pillow with just a few basic craft supplies and minimal skills.  You do not need to have any special knitting or sewing skills for this one!  

The plush chenille yarn gives great texture to the pillow and the silk flowers, with wood bead centers, add pretty details and color.  You can customize it with whatever colors and flower types you want to go with any decor.  

Materials:

- Skein of jumbo chenille yarn (28yds or more)

- 2 bunches of silk flowers

- Large painted wooden beads

- Crochet or other thin yarn & large craft needle

I happened to get all my supplies from Hobby Lobby, but similar items can all be found in most craft stores.

To make the actual pillow I used thick chenille yarn called Yarn Bee Eternal Bliss in the Ivory color, and a simple hand knitting technique to create a round pouf style pillow.  I followed a great video tutorial from Do It On A Dime to make it.  

I used it previously to make this Fluffy Pouf Pillow for my baby's room last year: 

I'd just recommend making the loops a little looser if using chenille yarn.  The chenille doesn't stretch and flatten like a wool/wool blend yarn so you don't want the stitches to get too tight to work with.  My finished pillow was 11 inches in diameter and 7 inches high, so I did 15 stitches around and 8 rows high. 

I picked some large & small bloom faux floral bunches

and a box of assorted painted wood beads in complimenting colors:

I pulled the blooms off the stems and removed the plastic centers and arranged them to get the shape I wanted on the pillow and then worked with them individually.

I cut a strand of my crochet yarn and threaded a bead then threaded both ends through my craft needle:

Then I ran the needle through the center of the bloom where the hole was through all the petal layers since I'd removed the plastic pistil & stamen:

I knotted the yarn to hold the beads tight in the center.

Then I took the yarn tails and wrapped them around a few loops of my pillow's top and tied some tight knots and clipped off the excess tails.  At first I used my craft needle to help, but it's just as easy to do by hand.

I repeated this attaching my blooms really close together to get a nice full floral top:

Then the pillow was done.  There were plenty of flowers and beads left to make another pillow, so with some of the items on sale, each pillow comes out to be about $12-15.

Since it's so easy to modify this design by using different yarns and toppers, I'm thinking about making some holiday themed versions since we've got Halloween, Thanksgiving & Christmas all coming up.  So stay tuned for more pillow crafting fun!