Perking things up

I decided to use a bit of orange as I ease into fall this year.  Since I had that on my doors, I decided to bring it indoors as well.

I love the orange with the green.

Saturday, when I was finished making a couple of striped pillow covers, I used another remnant of fabric to craft some pillow covers for my sofa pillows.

I had used this orange swirl fabric to create some table runners a couple of years ago.  So, I pulled out a strip that was exactly twenty-three inches wide.  It was the perfect size to make one side of the covers for my sofa pillows.

I think the orange was just the ticket for perking up the sofa and injecting a bit of fall color into the den.

For the other side of the pillow cover, I went to my old stand-by - blue.  Every single room in my house has a bit of blue in it.  So, backing these pillow covers with blue seemed to be a natural way to turn.  I had a cotton fabric that was in two pieces.  It was left from some project long, long years ago.  So, I tore the two pieces into strips that would form an envelope back for the orange swirl fabric.  I folded the edge under a half-inch.  Then, I folded it down a couple of inches to form a hem for the center, envelope edge and stitched.  Then, I pinned the back to the orange swirled front - right sides together and stitched them up.  I turned them right side out and pressed them.  Then, I stitched a knife edge about a quarter-inch from the outside edge of the cover.

Thinking I might want to use these covers on through the fall, or at some other time of the year, I decided to change these covers up aa bit and add a little tie to the back so that it would look more finished and would be cute facing out alongside my other blue pillow covers.  I just added a couple of ties to the center and just made a knot with them.

Do you recognize what the ties are crafted from?  Yep, it is an upcycle.  I had an old pair of Mike's jeans that I use for patching overalls.  So, I simply trimmed the double-stitched seam off one of the legs and cut it into four pieces.  I stitched two of the pieces to the back flaps and tied them into knots.

A couple of fresh looks and the only cost was a bit of my time.  I had all the materials here and they were left from other projects!