DIY (Mostly Cheating) Pillows

 

Is there such a thing as too much of a good thing?

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Last post on the family room upgrade - promise!  New duvet covers, new color scheme meant new pillows.  First stop: shopping the house for pillows that will work in the newly upgraded space.  The Captain is not a fan of pillows, so I snagged a couple that end up on the floor next to his chair. 
 

 



Add in a few semi- handmade.  This one is really a cheater.  I had cut off the end  a Pottery Barn table runner and whoo-ee, one of my pillow forms fit into it perfectly.  Since it already had 3 sides sewn (told you I just hacked it off), I jammed in the pillow form and whip-stitched the open edge.    There's blue, shells, fancy calligraphy and that Frenchy No 30 - works for me.

 

I saw an idea on Pinterest for no-sew pillows. Follow the link for a good tutorial and better pictures than mine. Basically what you do is lay a pillow form on a length of fabric and proceed as if wrapping a gift.  Instead of tucking  the pointy ends under and taping them as you would do on a package, , you tie them into a knot - voila- instant pillow. 



 

 A few lessons learned - heavy-weight fabric makes a knot the size of Chicago; the ends needed to be much longer so there is enough fabric to make a knot and still have enough to tuck under the end, and really just barely overlap the fabric over the pillow so you don't end up with too much extra fabric in the tails (reducing that knot-that-ate-Chicago).  My pillow form is 18 inches square and maybe this would work better with a smaller pillow.

 

 

Second try with a lighter weight fabric and using the lessons learned from the first attempt worked out much better.  Work the knot around until it is as flat as possible and tuck the ends into the knot.  Bet this would be cool made with a nice scarf.

 

I still wanted to use that great yellow and blue print fabric, so made this one:

 

 

Pretty simple pillow.  I didn't want to bother with a zipper or other complicated closure ( I am a very lazy seamstress these days), so made a pillow sham.  (Here's an easy tutorial).  My pillow form is an 18 inch square, so I cut a front piece 20 inches square.  Then cut 2 back pieces 20 inches long and 13 inches wide. Fold over and hem the center edges of your 2 back sections.  Over lap the 2 back sections onto the front section and sew them together.  Turn the pillow right side out and add a nice trimmed edge by sewing a one inch seam all around the edge.  Insert pillow form and  done.

 

 

My folded fabric pillow with the bird reminds me of this funny skit from Portlandia .  Keep calm and put a bird on it!