Pillow Crafting

Back in the summer my daughter-in-law, Jessica brought some pillows, some fabric remnants that she had purchased and came to craft.  We wound up creating plaques so she could have a unique shower gift for her brother and his future bride.  (You can read all about that HERE.)  So, yesterday, while our husbands were out in the wilds (actually up on the hill behind our house) hunting for helpless little birds (it is dove hunting season), we did some pillow crafting. 

On one of our jaunts to the fabric store, Jessica had selected a pretty linen fabric which was a remnant that she got for less than $2.  So, we took her bargain fabric and a couple of pillows that she had used (she thinks she picked these up at the dollar store several years ago for a song) on her bed for decoration and now she is developing a whole new look!  To get the most bang for her buck, we used a remnant that I had in my fabric stash for several years as the pillow backing.

Rather than take her pillows apart, we decided to simply cover them.  So, she measured the pillows and cut her fabric pieces - a couple of squares of her pretty linen print and a couple of squares of the fabric from my stash.  Earlier in the week I had picked up some cheap inexpensive trim at JoAnn's Etc. (6 yards on a spool for $2.99).  It looks sort of like miniature pom-pom trim I have seen on curtains or something.  So, I stitched it onto the edges of her linen fabric.  Then, I stitched the backing square onto that and turned it.  Together we folded and tucked her pillow into the new cover and viola!  A new look that she thinks is "more grown-up." 

It looks pretty good in the chair in my den!

Here is a close-up of the two fabrics and the petite pom-pom trim.

Jessica stitched the opening together by hand so that it would have a smooth, custom-made look.  I think this might have been a new experience for her. 



She had a look of concentration on her face most of the time - but a smile peeked through sometimes!

She had some left-over fabric and I suggested that we put it to use, as well.  Why waste such pretty linen fabric?  So, we created a panel pillow with some ruching like the ones Suzanne inspires over at Just Another Hangup. 

I think it turned out really beautifully!  (It looks pretty darn good on the sofa in my den, too)  Jessica learned that pulling up the gathering threads is not quite as easy as it looks.  She still seemed inspired and even asked me how much an inexpensive sewing machine might cost.  So, I think she might turn out to be a crafter at heart, too!  We adapted the pattern Suzzane posted just a little because the left-over piece of linen was 11" in width.  So, our ruching is a little bit more narrow.  When she got ready to cut a piece for the back of the pillow, we realized that we didn't have a piece quite big enough for our pillow.  So, we had to be a little creative and it turned out to make the pillow look even more like a designer accessory. 

Jessica cut two pieces of the fabric using the fullest length we had left.  We turned it under a quarter inch and then another inch and stitched it to have a finished edge on both pieces.  Then, put those where they would overlap in the middle and sewed the raw edges to the pillow front.  Next, Jessica turned it right side out and popped in a pillow that we made out of an old scrap of a sheet that I had used to line window treatments in this project HERE.  I made three button holes and Jessica sewed on three wooden buttons.  So, now the back looks like a designer piece, too!

I had a hard time watching them go out the door, since they looked so good in my den chairs!

I guess they do look pretty good on their bed at Jessica and Bryan's house, though.  What do you think?

Their new "grown-up" looking bed.

Jessica and I made a pretty good team.  I had found a tapestry panel last weekend and decided that it might make a good pillow, too.  When I got the trim we used in her pillow, I got a couple more pieces of trim but none seemed to make this panel look like I wanted.  Then, I remembered that a couple of the throw pillows on the sofa downstairs were ripped and the stuffing leaking out. 

So, I got one of them and began to take it apart. 

I thought the fringed edge would make a good trim for my fall pillow panel.  Well, somehow in the disassembly, I must have been a little too destructive and the fringe sort of fell in the floor in little piles instead of a long strip.  There was one pretty long strip, though. 

Here are the two sides of the pillow and a strip of the fringe after I disassembled it.

So, I stitched the fringe around the edge of my panel.  Then, I cut one part of the old sofa pillow down to fit the panel and stitched it to the back.  Jessica stuffed it (with some of the stuffing from the old sofa pillows) while I was doing some stitching on her pillows and I got a new pillow with a fall motif for my den. 

Recycling at its finest!