Do you have a pillow obsession? Maybe you have a storage closet just for your decorative pillows? Or maybe you used to have a couch or chair but there are too many pillows and blankets on top of it to even tell at this point?? Does this sound familiar?
Now, with so many more options and sales available daily it’s quite possible to find a great deal on pretty much anything. With the end of the season/holiday sales to any federal holiday sales, stores and online retailers have a deal waiting for you. Which I might add can be very tempting because sometimes the deals are too good to pass up. Right???
I wrote a blog on organizing, de-cluttering , and just figuring out what needs to stay (and more importantly what needs to go). It always AMAZES me how much “of the stuff” can accumulate in the blink of an eye. I get it, truly I do. I am very mindful of clutter and always have the urge to purge things that are no longer useful, functional, or things I’m just done with in my house. So not to re-write a de-cluttering blog, I will just direct you if you would like to read my blog post Spring has Sprung: It’s time to organize, de-clutter and purge your home
Back on track, many of you probably have several pillows of all shapes, sizes, and textures. You may like the shape and sizes, but as seasons come and go the pillow colors or themes generally do not transition very well for the look you maybe generally going for. Again, sounds about right?
Since I did not want to add more bulky pillows to an already overstuffed pillow closet, even though I just saw some super cute pillows, I realized that I can have the same look from the pillows I saw but without the burden of adding more things to my household if I just swap out the pillow cover…genius!!!
The material I am using happened to be one of my favorite, Buffalo Plaid, which I bought from the local craft store as a fleece blanket. I actually bought two of these fleece blankets because they were half off so two for the price of one in case I messed up I had a backup. I know this negates trying to use things up and get rid of clutter, but you’re using an existing pillow and swapping out covers which in my mind is a fair trade off!
So now I have a reason, a purpose, to start using my sewing machine my in-laws bought me for Christmas a couple of years ago. This project turned out to be a great motivator because I have always wanted to use my sewing machine but was actually quite intimidated by it, that was up until a few weeks ago.
Now, word of caution this project will not work on every pillow material or texture, and you may need to have a trial and error period before it looks right; but I promise in the end it actually was worth the time and a little bit of effort I put into to this project.
For this project, I used fleece material because I wanted the fabric to fit nicely around the already existing pillow. Plus, fleece is great material to work with because not only can it stretch out over the pillow you are using but, this material doesn’t have those funky, bumpy corners on the pillows. Again, great for any beginners using a sewing machine who are attempting a sewing project.
Step one: Choose your pillow(s).
Step two: Measure your pillow so you can cut your fabric accordingly or buy fabric for this project. Keep in mind while measuring you should measure a little more than the actual size of the pillow because you have to account for the material outside of the seam.
Step three. Cut your fabric from the appropriate dimensions and pin. Pinning along the edge allows for you to sew a little bit easier knowing that the fabric won’t suddenly shift out from under the foot of the sewing machine.
Step four. Sew…Slowly
Step five: place your new cover over an existing pillow and YOU DID IT!!!
And that is it. This project cost me about $10.00 to make and now I have covers to add a cozy log cabin feel WITHOUT cluttering up my house!
Enjoy!
LEMONBERRY & FIG 