Xbox Controller Pillows

My fiance is really difficult to shop for. I love him dearly but it is next to impossible to find a gift that will satisfy him. I searched for months and months before I finally came across the perfect gift: The Xbox Controller Pillow.

There was no instructions or tutorial (which is perfectly fine) so I made some assumptions and used my Home is Where the Xbox Is cross-stitch that I made for him as a guide.

Without further ado:

The birthday boy with his gifts:

(As soon as he opened the first one he immediately starting pushing the "buttons" and making "pew pew" noises).

I have some in process pics for those who are curious:

The first thing I did was draw (using a pencil) a free hand sketch of the shape of the controller and cut it out:

(I cut two at a time so it was easy to match up and sew. I used plain old broadcloth for the fabric).

I used a compass to draw circles on some poster board, cut them out, and taped them to the fabric:


My paint pallet:

(I painted the buttons and the Xbox logo using fabric paint from Joann Fabrics)

The colored buttons:


The Xbox logo I painted on using one of the circle patterns that I drew (just around it) and then drew the "X" with my paintbrush freehand:


Here's the whole pillow painted:


Then the paint needed almost 4 hours to dry, apply a second coat, and then another 4 hours to dry. :( Then I sewed the right sides together leaving a large gap for stuffing and turned it right side out:

I then stuffed the pillow and sewed up the bottom.

The finished product:


and finally...

on our bed: