Quick Tip Tuesday - Using Fabric Markers to Color Match

I scored these awesome Robert Allen's Khanjali fabric pillows at Homegoods last week.  All though they are not outdoor pillows, I knew that I had to have them for my back patio.

Unfortunately, they only had two pillows in this fabric and I didn't find any others that worked as coordinates.  I needed at least two more.  In addition to these two chairs, I also have a loveseat that needed a little pillow love too.

I went to Homegoods, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Pier 1, Tuesday Morning, Target and World Market looking for coordinating pillows only to come out empty handed.  Yes, I really did go to all of those stores.  What is even more disturbing is that I visited multiple locations of some of them.   I admit it, I have a problem.  

Normally, when I can't find exactly what I am looking for at the stores, I just make it myself.  This time, I was completely unmotivated to sew anything.  Just when I thought I might have to resort to making pillows myself, I remembered the last time I was in Garden Ridge, they had a huge pillow department.  Yeah, they are pretty crappy quality, but I didn't care at this point.  I headed there and unlike the other 75 stores I searched, Garden Ridge did not disappoint.  I found these cute pillows in almost the exact colors of my Robert Allen pillows. Did I mention that they were on sale for $6??  

Looking at the pillows in the pictures, they look like they match just fine.   Most people would have been totally okay with them the way they were.  It seems that I have this color matching disorder.  I get fixated on colors not being "just right"  Every time I looked at the new pillows, I saw pale, smokey blue as opposed to the more vibrant turquoise that I was seeing in the original pillows.

Nothing I buy or put in my house is above getting a little tweak or makeover.  I decided I would make the new pillows exactly the color I wanted using a turquoise fabric marker.

I basically scribbled over the blue flame stitch pattern until I got the vibrant color I was looking for.  Because the pattern wasn't perfect, I didn't have to be either.

Now the pillows look like this...

The marker is permanent fabric dye so it should hold up just fine.

Here they are on the loveseat.

And once again here is the fabric that started it all.

I love how the colors and patterns work together now.  I am sure that I will find more opportunities to use fabric markers.  This little trick will open up a ton of possibilities.