Mental Health Day Results (or How to Cover Pillows)

Well I’m back from my Mental Health Day (as Casey calls it), and I’m ready to share some of the DIY awesomeness I accomplished yesterday!

First off, here’s a quick how-to for that springy pillow I showed you.  In case you missed it, these pillows are actually made from a shower curtain I found at Target the other day.  I spotted the pattern and loved the colors, and I’m so glad I snatched that puppy up!  I actually made two of these for our living room, and I’m amazed at how much they change the vibe in there.

Step 1: Decide how to orient the fabric on the pillow. I tried the fabric two different ways on the pillow form I would be using and decided to go with the X rather than the + orientation.

Step 2: Using the previous pillow cover, cut the square for the front of the pillow about an inch bigger on all four sides. Since this pattern was very persnickity, I had to make sure to line up the corners of the pillow with the green stems in the pattern.

Step 3: With the “right” sides of the fabric facing inwards, line up the pieces for the back of the pillow (there will be 2 since I made it an envelope-style pillow) with the pattern on the front.

Piece 1 (see how the pattern is lined up?)

Piece 2 (I snuck it under Piece 1 because the hemmed edge on that piece would look prettier on the outside.)

I cheated a little bit on this step because normally I would have had to hem the edges that would be facing out.  Luckily the pattern on the shower curtain matched up in the right places so that I could use the factory hem instead of having to sew my own.  Score!

Step 4: Pin the sides together, trim down the edges of the sides so they’re good and even, and measure out exactly where the seams should go (using the original – orange – pillow cover as a guide).  My pillow pieces were about 19.25″ wide and I needed the finished pillowcase to be 17.25″x17.25″, so I measured in an inch on all four sides.

Can you see where I trimmed the far side already?

Here’s where I marked the corner for the final seam.

Step 5: Sew mama, sew! I made sure to backstitch for reinforcement where the sides of the “envelope” joined the front of the pillow.

Step 6: Trim edges, zig-zag stitch to prevent fraying, cut corners (no, I don’t mean “cheat”, I mean snip those corners so your pillow has nice sharp edges when you turn it rightside out.)

Step 6: Flip it and reverse it and put yo pillow in it!

Here are a few shots of our new pillows in their native habitat.

I actually made all the pillows on this couch, I’m proud to say!  You might remember that blue pillow from this post, and here’s the low-down on how I made the white knit one (let’s just say thrift stores and I are like *this* – we’re tight).

Start with a clean knit sweater (the bigger the better).  This one was 1/2 off, so with a pillow form I already had, this pillow cost $2.25 to make.

With the sweater inside out, pull it down over your pillow form and pin the top and both side seams, being careful not to pin the pillow form inside.

Remove pillow form and sew seams for all three sides, trim and zig-zag edges to keep from fraying.

Turn rightside out, pull over pillow form, and hand stitch bottom opening shut.  (Google “ladder stitch” for great instructions on how to hide this bottom seam.)

Viola!  Instant knitted pillow.

I spotted several of these at Target and the like this winter for about 20 bucks.  Not bad for a $2.50 knock-off, eh?

So, along with some cleaning and movie watching, that’s how my day off went down.  I think it was a success!

For kicks, I’m linking to:

Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest

The DIY Showoff Project Parade

Show and Share Day at Just A Girl

Link Party at Tea Rose Home

Metamorphosis Monday at BNOTP