Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Upcycled Sweater Pillows

Every time I say "sweater pillows" out loud I giggle like a 10 year old girl because it sounds like some silly euphemism for breasts... but it is not... at lease in this case.





I actually took 2 sweaters that I was getting rid of, cut them up and made them into pillows.  This was a nap time project, which means that from start to finish it took me 1.5 hours.  If you want to make a few for yourself, here is what you need:

12" pillow form (or whatever size you want.  Just make sure that it is smaller than the sweater you are starting with)

Old sweater
button to be the center of the flower

1.  Since I bought a 12" pillow form, I marked and cut out 2 13" (12" plus .5" seam allowance all the way around) squares from my sweater.

2.  I pinned the squares together (right sides together) and sewed them with a .5" seam allowance.  I left about 3" at the bottom of the square open so that I could turn it right side out once it was sewed.

3.  I turned my pillow so that the right sides were out and shoved the pillow form inside. 

4.  Once the pillow form was inside, I whip-stitched the hole in the bottom closed.  (you can stop here if you want... you have a finished pillow)

5.  I decided to make flowers to embellish the pillow.  So I went back to my cut up sweater and cut the bottom ribbing off the body. 

6.  I ran a basting/gathering  stitch through the cut side of the ribbing.  I pulled the basting/gathering stitch and the ribbing gathered itself up.  I knotted the thread and cut off the excess.  I formed a flower shape that I deemed suitable and tacked it together with a few stitched. 

7.  I sewed the flower into the pillow and then sewed a button in the flower to form the center and to cover up the gathering and raw edges.

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