Pillow Talk

I became a pillow-making machine on the weekend.

I was at the dollar store on Friday looking for plastic storage containers, wandered down the linens aisle and stopped at the placemats. I couldn't believe how many different patterns and fabrics there were.  I chose a green mat with a slight wavy pattern and two grey on grey mats with a Paris, France print.  I love the different fonts, and the fabric is quite thick.

The green one was two-ply so I tore out the stitches along one side with a stitch-ripper, stuffed the cavity with polyester fiberfill, and sewed the seam closed.  Easy-peasy as they say.

The printed placemats were thicker, a single-ply, but with a kind of vinyl backing.  I was concerned that the sewing machine needle wouldn't go through a double thickness, but it was no problem at all.  I matched them up, right sides out, and sewed around 3 edges. 

I was going to stuff it with fiberfill but I decided to use an old pillow form instead.  It was a dense pillow form - feather-filled maybe - and it made the pillow weighty and substantial.  I shoved the pillow form in further than it should go so that I could squeeze the open sides together and sew them up on the machine.  I hate hand sewing and use the machine whenever I can.

The pillow can't be changed out easily but I don't think I'm going to want to anyway.  I went back to the dollar store on Monday and bought two more placemats to make a matching pillow.  (I may even have bought 4 more in a slightly different shade - same pattern - for the livingroom.) 

I also bought two pillow covers on that first trip.  They were already finished with a zipper at the back. 

I bought them because the grey silk is a near-perfect match to the curtains in the guest room. At first I stuffed them with fiberfill, but they were too soft so I switched it out for some throw pillows I already had.

 So what was the total?

Green placemat - $1.50
Paris placemats - $6 (4x$1.50)
Silk pillow covers - $4 (2x$2)
Stuffing - already had it, but about $2
Pillow forms - already had, prices unknown

Total - $13.50 for 5 pillows, or $2.70 per pillow. How's that for some thrifty work?

Here is the guest room with all the pillowy goodness. 

I still need to switch out the picture above the bed - the room used to be green & brown and it matched then. I want to put a black and white picture up there - maybe even one I've taken myself. 

Something like this:

I think I have to stay away from the dollar store for a little while.  These were so easy that I could go crazy buying placemats and sewing them up. 

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I'm linking up here this week!