Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Pillow Talk ~ Up-cycling

Recently I wanted to make a pillow to jazz up our peaceful, serene bed. The aqua coverlet and light paisley pillow shams are just what I wanted...a beach cottage feel. And the green pillow is a great accent color. But just a little zip of pattern/color was still needed in my opinion. So I bought this amazing paisley fabric with all three of the colors I wanted for just a few dollars. Yay!I made a bolster pillow pretty easily, using a small plate as the template for the round ends, and then just sewing a rectangle of fabric to each of them, stuffing it, and whip stitching the opening closed. However, Little Paisley Pillow still needed some embellishments. Recently while wearing a favorite but older aqua knit shirt, I noticed it had a small hole in it. Bummer. But before putting it in the Goodwill pile, I realized it was the perfect color for embellishing this pillow! Ha!
I cut a strip from around the shirt, and it made a great 'band' around the pillow...off center made it more interesting. Then I took the aqua knit, a scrap of the paisley, and a scrap of another green (from my sewing bench project), and fashioned a fabric flower....gathered it in the middle a bit, and added a button. Two of those were the finishing touch. Loving the up-cycled embellishments and the splash of color on our bed!
With the remainder of the paisley fabric, I made a pillow cover for this little pillow that no longer matched our bedroom.
Two little circle-scraps-buttons-flowers for embellishment on it and....
Finis!! (My high school French still comes back to me now and then. Madame Steele would be pleased!)
Thank for sharing in my little project...hope you will think of some kind of up-cycling project you can do with a pretty but worn garment too!

Enjoy!!
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