An easy way to create your own relaxing oasis at home is with some comfy tropical leaf pillows. This project includes two separate patterns. One is a monstera leaf you can cut out of felt and stitch on with some pretty embroidery floss and the other is a variety of tropical leaves you can iron on to your pillow cover.

Both designs can be cut by hand with our PDF template, but the iron-on design will be much quicker and easier to cut with a cutting machine. You can find all of the downloads you need below, including our step-by-step tutorial for the embroidered pillow.

Pillows we’re frond of

I got these pillow covers while traveling in Amsterdam earlier this year and thought the dark green was perfect for creating some tropical leaf pillows. To make the leaves stand out, I chose a lighter green for both my embroidery floss and heat transfer vinyl. Both of these vibrant greens give the leaf designs that bold tropical color we love. And if you want to do the same, you can find them linked below.

Once you have crafted your tropical leaf pillows, you can enjoy them indoors on your couch or outside on a lounge chair or patio furniture. If you are keeping them inside, we also have some outdoor pillows you can make, including one that is more oversized (which my dog loves!). 

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Tools

• Cutting Machine or Craft Scissors/Detail Scissors
• StarCraft Heat Press, Cricut EasyPress, or Iron
• Embroidery Needles
• Needle Threader
• Pen or Pencil
• Sewing Pins

Materials

• Pillow Covers
• Lia Griffith’s Wool Blend Felt – Evergreen
• 2 Skeins of Lia Griffith’s DMC Embroidery Floss – Blue Green (502)
• 2 Sheets of 24-inch Siser Easy Weed in Cadette Green

How to Make Tropical Leaf Pillows

1. Gather your craft tools and materials. Then download the leaf patterns below.
2. Cut monstera leaf pattern from felt using your scissors or a Cricut Maker with the rotary blade.
3. Using the pattern to guide you, mark felt for running stitch lines.
4. Pin felt leaf on top of the pillow cover and thread embroidery needle with a full strand of floss for a thicker line.

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Explore More

After you’ve made your tropical pillows, you may as well enjoy a fun tropical drink — complete with palm tree straw toppers. And if you really want to go all out with your tropical decor, you can even make your own palm trees!

For more pretty ideas from our May Craft Collection, check out our wood bead tropical flower wreath and our macrame wall hanging. You can also grab inspiration from our Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram. And browse our YouTube channel for video tutorials.