Sewing: Simple Pillow Covers Made From Recycling Old Curtains

I used to sew a lot, curtains, pillowcases, skirts and dresses, but I don't do much sewing lately.

Saturday, I was home all day, and did some tidying and also decided to bite the bullet and get some pillow covers made.  I'd decided that the pillow covers that I had made years ago had seen better days and it was time for them to go!

I have a fabric stash, and sometimes I wonder why I hold on to so much of it, because when I go to make something I never like what I already have.  However, I did remember that I had some curtains a friend had given me.  They had hung in her daughters room, and even though they were faded in places, she gave them to me when they moved, because I love the Waverly pattern so much.  I've used them as shower curtains in my bathroom, but otherwise they've sat in my stash.

Well, not any more!

The color looks different because of the poor lighting in my living room this morning, but they are the same. 

I simply measured the pillows, cut the fabric about an half an inch wider than the pillow (I wanted the pillows to be fluffy), did straight line sewing of seams, and stitched the cover closed around the pillows.  I made two sets, two different sizes.

I like them, and my kids have mentioned how much they like them, too.  It feels great to have cute pillows in the living room, and to have been able to recycle this fabric! That's a win in my book!

Christmas Pillow From A Placemat

A few weeks ago I was checking out the newly stocked Christmas items in the Target Dollar Spot when I spied a few adorable placemats.  I quickly grabbed two of the one I loved because I knew I could make cute pillows out of them!

Cute graphic, kind of vintage, nice size.


I made one tonight and I'm happy with how it turned out.  I gathered my materials, the new place mat, an old plaid place mat I've had for years, and some batting to fill it with.

All I did was put the graphic side against the plaid place mat, sew it around three sides, stuff it, turn it right side out, and then sew up the last side.  This I had to do with a by hand (whip stitch) because I broke the needle on my sewing machine and of course I didn't have any spare ones.  But it only took a few minutes to stitch it up by hand.  I think you could do the whole thing by hand, if you didn't have a sewing machine.

It turned out so cute, didn't it?  I know some of you would have ironed it, but I seriously didn't even think about it.  Emma liked it and said, "You can make me one."  I smiled and said, "I did make you one, this one is for you!"  Happiness all around.

 Cute christmas pillow.



And here's the backside of the pillow!  It was so great how the place mats were just about the same size, I only had to trim a little off the plaid one.

I'm going to make another pillow just like this one for myself.  I love cute pillows but cannot bring myself to pay a lot of money for them.  I'm going to try to make a few different pillows this year.

Do you love seasonal pillows?  Do you buy or make them?  

Pillowcases On The Bed

A few readers asked if I would show the pillowcases, that I made, on the bed.

Here they are - 

Sometimes I do a third pillow with white lacy pillowcases, but I think I may have had them in the wash!

You can see how my friend used her birthday pillowcases here.

Have you ever made pillowcases?

I'm joining Thoughts Of Home on Thursday.  You should check it out - lots of great links.  There are so many creative women in the blogging world!  Very inspiring!

I Did A Bit Of Sewing On Saturday

I haven't had my sewing machine out for quite a while, but I needed to mend a dress for Rachel, and we've been needing a few new aprons.  Several of our aprons are in REALLY bad shape.  One was so bad Tim said I should throw it away!

I never did get to the aprons, though I did pick out the material that I am going to use to make two new ones, soon!  What I did do was make two sets of pillow cases!

I love how they turned out!  One set it going to a friend for a birthday gift.  The other set I may use!  I like that they are vintage style patterns, but I usually buy solid pillow cases, because I like to mix and match my linens.  These two patterns would actually work well with the linens I have for my bed, and I think it would be pretty to have some pattern pillowcases on the bed.

What do you think?  What kind of pillowcases do you usually use?



Joining Sandi for No Place Like Home
 Bernideen for BTTCG
And with Laura from White Spray Paint for Thoughts of Home on Thursday

We're Heading Out

in a few minutes to take my parents to the airport.

They are leaving on a jet plane for California today.  They are excited and my mom is nervous.  She doesn't like to fly but they found great tickets on a nice airline and she has her travel pillow.  I made her an adorable pillowcase for it out of the beautiful fabric I used for my throw pillows.  Here is a photo of my pillow so you can see the fabric.  She's traveling in style today!

 We are going to have a breakfast date on the way home.  I love to go out for breakfast!

We are busy here behind the scenes trying to get our website functioning.  We are learning a lot.  We are thankful that we own the domain name it makes it easier.  We plan to make it more functional, just as soon as we have the full control over it.

Tim and the girls showed their slides from Senegal yesterday.  It was such an amazing trip for them.  The presentation ended with a photo montage to the song "The Wonder Of The Cross."  Such a great reminder of God's redeeming work.

What are you up to today?

Tending To My Home

I love to tend my home.  I love to rearrange furniture *a lot*.  I love to change the pictures on our walls, and move them from room to room.  I guess you could say, I like to make our home feel fresh and new without much expense.

One day when I was at the fabric outlet, I spied a beautiful fabric that had a vintage feel to it.  I pulled it out, looked at it, put it back.  Came back to it and bought two yards!

It has a light green background with cream colored dots and a beautiful floral pattern on it.  It is perfect for Summer.  I used it to make a small valance for my kitchen window - I love to be able to see out the window and to let the sunshine in!

 I also made two simple pillow covers...

So fresh and pretty!  These are the pillow forms that I covered with my Waverly ticking stripe - you can find that post here.

I have a bit of fabric left, but am not sure what to do with it...any ideas?

Doing these kinds of small things delight me and help me focus on homemaking in the midst of running a business.

The valance and pillows make me happy...what things around your house make you happy?