Nautical Map Pillow

I may have gone a little pillow crazy again.  In addition to fabric pillows I showed you guys recently, I’ve made a few unusual pillows in the past: a tea towel pillow, argyle sweater pillow, and placemat pillows.  Well call me crazy, but I’ve made another placemat pillow.

I just couldn’t help myself when I saw this nautical print placemat for under $1 at the Christmas Tree Shops. 



But it gets even better, the other side of the placemat has this great antique looking nautical map.



How awesome is that map!  So I simply unstitched a portion of the pillow and filled it with polyester fiberfill (bought at AC Moore- with a coupon of course).  I sewed this bad boy back up and in a matter of minutes I had this amazing nautical antique map pillow.



Doesn’t it look fantastic?  I love nautical and beach themed stuff, so this print is right up my alley.



I can’t wait to put out my summer décor, l think this pillow will look great along with it.



The other side of the pillow looks nice too and has a fun nautical look.



I’m really happy with how this pillow turned out.  I find so much great stuff at the Christmas Tree Shops.  Do you have a favorite store for home décor goodies?


I'm linking this project up to Tatertots & Jello, Beneath My Heart, 320 Sycamore, House of Hepworths, Delightful Order, Embracing Change, Rad Crafter, and Thistlewood Farms. 

Pillow Talk

I am long overdue in sharing some updates for how last year’s New Diyears resolution to-do list went.  Despite my delay in updates on what went down  last year, I surprisingly got a lot of my to-do list done.  One of my checked off items is sewing new family room pillows.

I wanted to bring in the color green as an accent in my family room so I started by sewing new pillows.  I found a fun green pattern print at Joann Fabrics and bought a couple of yards, using a 40% off coupon of course, and got to work. 



This was my first time sewing pillows from scratch since probably middle school, but I’m happy at how the results turned out.  I wanted to make sure these pillows would be durable so I sewed an insert pillow out of cheap white fabric first and then used the green fabric to make the pillow covers.  I sewed an envelope style back so the pillow inserts could be slipped out and the covers could be washed if needed.  I made sure to wash and dry the green fabric before sewing to ensure the fabric didn’t shrink during future washes.



I think the pillows are pretty cute and they are comfy too.  I even got a pup stamp of approval.  (Although he’s giving me a look like “stop with the paparazzi, I’m trying to snooze here.”)



They do make a good make for a good napping spot.



The pillows go well with the argyle sweater pillow I sewed last winter too.



And they match perfectly with the quatrefoil tray I painted for the family room too.



I think with these pillows, and the vintage tea towel pillow and placement pillows I made last year, I can safely cross off “sew new pillows” from my to-do list!

DIY Fabric Gift Bags

So I know Christmas is long over, but I had to do just one last holiday related post and in a minute you'll see why.  Plus, I bet you are still finding pine needles across your house, so that makes one more holiday post okay in my book.  Now, here’s what my house looked like before gift exchanging with my family last year (2010):



Presents were everywhere and those plastic bags were filled with even  more wrapped gifts.  I don’t have an aftermath shot of that year, but here’s what the room looked like after all the gifts had been opened a few years ago:


Crazy right?  A big wrapping paper mess!  Now I know many families have a trash bag prepared and throw wrapping paper away as they open gifts, but I’ve always hated ruining the fun of present opening with having to stop and cleanup every 2 minutes.  You have to admit it is kind of fun to make a big giant mess and shouldn’t exchanging presents be fun?  Of course, cleaning up that mess is no fun at all.  Plus, wrapping so many presents is a nightmare!  Especially when there is a lot of other things to do for the holidays, gift wrapping just seems like a chore.

So after last year, my sister had the brilliant idea to sew reusable fabric gift bags.  It would be less of a mess, greener (no more wasting paper and these are reusable each year), cheaper in the long run (no more buying paper), more durable than using paper gift bags, easy to store when not in use, and best of all save a TON of time gift wrapping.  So we tried it this past year.  And here’s what the tree looked like:



Still a lot of presents, but the majority of them were in nice and neat cloth gift bags (we didn’t have enough bags for all of the gifts).  And let me tell you, gift wrapping was a breeze this year!  Now, I chose to loosely wrap/cover the presents in tissue paper before putting them in the fabric gift bags because I was worried some of the unwrapping mystery fun would be lost without wrapping, but it really wasn’t a big deal.  My sister just put her gifts in the bags, without tissue paper, and opening them wasn’t any less fun.  You can still shake or feel the bag and have pre-opening present guessing fun with the fabric bags so none of the “magic” was lost. 

So why am I telling you about this now?  Because now is the perfect time to buy holiday fabric because it’s on clearance!  Last year, around this time, I went to Walmart and stocked up on holiday fabric once it was 50 or 75% off.  I got several prints and I believe they were about $1.10 per yard.  I bought a LOT of it and ended up spending about $25 total.  Our plan was to sew the bags throughout the year, but of course we procrastinated until this past December (that’s why we ended up running out of time and not having enough bags sewn).  I’m not sure what their selection is like now, but a year ago when I bought the fabric, Walmart had cute holiday prints like Frosty the Snowman and Winnie the Pooh.


To make the bags, we first cut the fabric using paper gift bags as a guide for size.  I just put the paper gift bag on my fabric and cut the fabric to be slightly taller and two times wider than the paper template.  Then, depending on how it was cut (either 2 or 3 sides would have to be sewn shut depending on the kinds of pieces you are using) I sewed all of the sides together, just leaving an opening at the top.  The top was hemmed and we ran ribbon through so the bags would tie shut.  And its not necessary, but when I wasn’t lazy, I also sewed across the bottom two corners as shown so the finished product would have a more defined gift bag shape.  The photo below shows where I sewed in red:



Pretty simple!  As I mentioned before, I am a total novice when it comes to sewing, but this was a very easy project for me.  Here’s what this finished gift bag looked like:



I am very happy my sister convinced me to do this (she’s going to love reading that).  The biggest benefit of the gift bags is not having to spend hours wrapping presents like we used to.   The bags were a huge time saver and not any less fun.  My nephews (all under age 8) didn’t seem to care how the presents were wrapped and enjoyed opening them just the same.  Hopefully we will sew the remainder of our fabric into bags ahead of next December so we will be fully stocked up for the next holiday season.  Only 11 months to go!

DIY Sweater Pillow

I've been seeing a lot of sweaters turned pillows on Pinterest and wanted to get in on the fun.  I was particularly inspired by this cable-knit sweater turned pillow that I pinned (originally found on Better After and made by Grand Design Co.)  I originally wanted to use a thick cable knit sweater for my version too, but I realized that I had given all of my ill-fitting ones away to Goodwill recently.  But I did find this old, but cute, argyle print sweater in my new Goodwill pile that is perfect for pillow making.



It no longer fit me, but my model looked pretty spectacular wearing it:



I must admit I briefly considered keeping the sweater for him, but I didn't see any country club visits planned on his calendar, so I decided to move forth with the pillow project.



I'm a total novice when it comes to sewing, so I don't feel qualified to write a full tutorial about how to make a sweater pillows, but I did put together this quick picture showing where I made cuts and where I sewed (just keep in mind, I'm no pro!).

Basically, I cut off the sleeves, stitched the top of the sweater, stitched the bottom of the sweater part-way (leaving just enough of a gap to squeeze my pillow form in), and then cut off all of the excess material.  The width of the sweater was perfect for my pillow form so I didn't have to touch the sides of the sweater.  Once the pillow form was in, I hand sewed the bottom of the pillow where I had left the opening.   

Here's the finished project.  It was pretty quick, easy, and cute!

I also added a small rosette that I made from excess fabric.  I played around with a bunch of ways to make a rosette, but the only thing that really worked was rolling the fabric until something it looked nice (this must be the vaguest tutorial ever!).



I think the pillow looks festive for the holidays, but can also be kept around other times of the year.  What do you think?  Have you made any sweater pillows or from other upcycled materials? (I also made placemat pillows and a tea towel pillow over the summer).

Have you made an Pinterest inspired projects?  I'm linking this post to the Pinterest Party fun going on at Bower Power, Young House Love, Hi SugarPlum, and The Great Indoors.

This post was also linked to House of Hepworths and Thistlewood Farms.

Placemat Pillows

I've gone a little pillow crazy lately.  In addition to the vintage beach combing pillow I shared the other day, I made two other pillows recently.  This time they weren't from a vintage towel, but instead from fabric placemats.

I found two giraffe print placemats at HomeGoods for just 50 cents each.  Yep, just $1 buckaroo for both of them!  Since I didn't really have a use for them as a traditional placemat, I decided to turn them into pillows.



At first I was just going to sew the two placemats together, but then I realized that they were made of two pieces of fabric that were sewn together and I could just open them up and stuff the inside.  This method is way easier and now I could make two pillows instead of one!



First I washed the placemats and then ironed them.  Then I used a seam ripper to create a small opening in the seam, just big enough for me to squeeze the pillow stuffing into.  I stuffed the pilllows, sewed the opening shut, and they were done!  Easy peasy!



And now I can add a little animalistic touch to my sofa!  Now there's a word I never thought I'd use on my blog!



The pillows match well with my sea themed pillow, so I decided to place them on my living room couch.  I think the similar colors make the pillows work well together even though the patterns are so different.



I've been keeping an eye out at HomeGoods for clearance placemats and kitchen towels these days!  Any suggestions from other things I could make pillows out of?

I'm sharing this project on Workin' On it Wednesday, House of Hepworths, Less than Perfect Life of Bliss, check out the other great projects featured!

Beach Print Pillows

Earlier this summer, I picked up this vintage beach print fabric at a garage sale for 25 cents.  I love the fun sea-themed print and couldn’t pass it up for just a quarter.  I think it was originally sold as a some sort of tapestry, or maybe a kitchen towel of sorts, but it was clear that it had been folded up and never touched- maybe even for a few decades!  If anyone recognizes this pattern, I’d love to hear about it!



So I took it home, washed it, ironed it, and decided to sew it into a pillow.  I simply folded it in half (wrong side out) and then sewed the three remaining sides shut, leaving a little opening for me to stuff it.



It was a fast, easy, and cheap project, and I love the results!  Both sides of the pillow have a fun look.





The pillow is a nice fit on my living room couch next to my starfish pillows (from The Christmas Tree Shops a few years ago).  I love this beachy look for the summer!





I’ve since been keeping an eye out for other vintage fabrics at yard sales.  Have you ever come across vintage fabrics?  Any good places to look for them?

I'm linking this project up to Southern Hospitality, Mad in Crafts, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Skip to my Lou, Super Stinky Boys, c.r.a.f.t, Between Naps on the Porch, Making the World Cuter, Creative Kristi, Less than Perfect Life of Bliss; check out the other great projects featured.