Saturday, May 14, 2011

Quick Placemat Pillows

Once upon a summer, I lived in a new-to-me house.  I had a lovely, sunny, extra bedroom that we call the Den.  Truly though, I think of it as my own little room that I share with my family.  The walls are green.  My favorite.  But the room was alittle bland.  So I wanted some cute throw pillows for the futon that didn't cost much and had a neat design on them.  Thus when I found these beautiful woven placemats at Kohls on sale and found with delight that they were lined, I knew I'd found my solution!
So here's how these almost-no-sew pillows came to be.  I slit the back side lining at the bottom.  Careful to just cut through the back, not the front.  This only works with placemats that have 2 separate pieces joined together.
Next I cut an old bed pillow in half.  It's weird inside there!  Kind of like layers of polyester that have been wrapped around each other.  I took out enough of the filling so that the two separate pillows would fit in my 2 placemats.

Since it was a new-to-me house and I'd just lived there a month, I didn't have a sewing spot in the house yet.  So yes, that's me, sewing on the floor.  Don't try this at home.  Ha! I sewed the open end of each pillow half.

There she be...my new (old) pillow form.  I loved upcycling this pillow and keeping the cost down.

I stuffed the pillow form into the placemat, and since I was feeling lazy, I used an iron and some stitch witchery to close up the slit in the back.  Honestly?  It worked GREAT!  These pillows get laid on and tossed around daily and that stitch witchery has held firmly!

Here they are on the futon!  I l-o-v-e them!  The botanical print, shades of green, nubby texture, and the price...about $2.50 each.

By that fall, I had also found grass green pillow cases to further embellish the futon with more color.  I also purchased this little 1950s sewing table, refinished it, recovered the bench, and my sweet green Den is now a very peaceful place to hang out.  Ahhh.  Thanks for visiting!  I l-o-v-e comments and new followers!  Making it to 50 followers would be a dream come true!  
    Blessings!   

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