Creating a Photo Collage Pillow

I wanted to make a pillow that celebrated many of the wonderful family vacations we’ve had over the years as a high school graduation gift for each of our kids.  I thought the pillows would be fun reminders and a comfort when the kids were away at college.  Here are the steps I followed to create the matched pair of pillows:

1. Determine the size of the pillow.  I went with a standard 18” square pillow so that I could get two pillows from a yard of printed fabric.  I ordered two inexpensive 18” square pillow forms from Amazon
2. Curate your photos.  My theme was pictures from our various family vacations in which all 4 of us were in the photo.  These were a bit hard to find and I had to dig through a lot of photos- this was a good reminder to me that we should do a more consistent job of asking others to snap a photo so that our entire family can be in the picture.  Gather copies of the photos you want into a folder on your computer so that they are grouped together and easy to upload
3. Determine your collage format.  There are many choices, but I went with a basic grid of 16 photos per collage, 4 by 4.  Your collage format will be influenced by the number of photos you want to use.  I liked the 16 photos version, as this way each photo on the pillow would be about 4.5” per side and a good size for viewing.  I used the free online PicMonkey website to create 2 separate collages (a different one for each side of the pillow).  PicMonkey is easy to use, and they have a lot of information on the site, like this article here:
http://www.picmonkey.com/blog/learn-collage-before-another-butterfly-dies/
4. Important PPI settings:  For printing fabric on Spoonflower, the pixels-per-inch (PPI) ratio is an important function for what size the image will be printed on the fabric.  Spoonflower’s standard for printing fabric is 150 PPI, so if you want panels printed at 18”, you need to create your collage image to be 2,700 pixels by 2,700 pixels.  The formula for calculating print size is:
                           Size in inches you want X resolution (ppi or dpi)= pixels
Note: I did not attempt to include seam allowances in my fabric printing calculations.  I just planned on narrow seam allowances when sewing the pillow.  So, set your size on PicMonkey to 2,700 pixels by 2,700 pixels before you begin making your collage
5. Upload the photos you want to use from the curated folder you created.  Organize the photos into the collage as you like.  PicMonkey lets you zoom and adjust images so that you frame the best portion of your photos.  I was careful not to use photos on the outside edges of the collage that had a person right on the outside edge of the photo- you want to give yourself a little room for seam allowance without sewing through someone’s head.  PicMonkey lets you adjust the spacing between your photos (I used 22) and the color of these gaps in between the photos (I used a dark gray, background color 444444)
6. Once you have your collage photos organized as  you like them, save the collage as a Jpeg file on your computer

7. Now I had to figure out how to create the layout of my two different 18” collage panels to print effectively on a yard of fabric at Spoonflower.  This required me to work on a much larger scale of pixels than usual photo editing software allows.  After searching around, I found this solution:
https://support.spoonflower.com/hc/en-us/articles/204265944-How-to-Create-a-Large-scale-Image-with-Free-Software
I downloaded the free Gimp software and used it to create a layout that would print two each of two different panels on a yard of fabric, for two pillows. Once you manipulate the collages in Gimp as you like them (essentially an image that is 36” by 36” at 150 ppi), save the whole file as a Jpeg
8. Log into Spoonflower, and upload your large Gimp Jpeg image to make one yard of fabric.  One edge of the fabric is actually 42” rather than 36” so you’ll have a bit of a short section of repeat.  Make sure that the layout is good.  I ordered 1 yard of basic cotton, $18.75 with shipping
9. When you receive the fabric, run it through your washer and dryer- it tends to be pretty stiff after the printing process. Here is the fabric before I cut the panels for the pillows:

The printed fabric- four panels for two pillows

10. Iron it on the back side of the fabric, then cut out the panels for your pillow and sew the 4 sides, leaving a big opening on one side to insert the pillow form.  Slip stitch the opening closed.

The pillow displayed on our daughter's 2016 open house memory table

The pillow on display at our son's 2019 open house