Easy Thrifty Pillows Tutorial:

Making Easy Pillows on the Cheap:
(This was previously posted on my Craft Blog.)

The other day I went to the local dollar store and purchased some tapestry wall hangings, place mats and table runners. I was lucky enough to only pay $1.50 for each of them. I did this project at Christmas, but decided to do it again and show you how.

This wall hanging that will soon become a pillow.

I first removed the wooden dowel (I kept the string attached on one end because I want to use it later for another project). Also remove the tassels.



Lay out your muslin. Don't worry about wrinkles, you'll iron those out later. I love my island for cutting things out ... it is the right height so my back doesn't hurt. The table works too, if you don't have an island. I buy semi thick muslin, usually at Walmart or the fabric store ... it is between .99 and 1.99 per yard and the color goes well for a lot of the projects that I work on.

I usually do pillows in bulk. These are some of the tapestry place mats that I bought and cut out at the same time as the pillow that I am featuring. Lay the tapestries face down on the muslin and cut around it. You don't even need to pin the two together if you don't want to.

This is what it looks like after I cut it out. It is better to have more muslin than tapestry so that you don't have to use pins (which saves you time and saves you hurting your fingers). If you are using thinner fabric you might have to use pins. You will be cutting off the excess muslin later on.

Just in case you were wondering what 

my sewing area used to look like when 
I first posted this on my crafts blog.

This is what it looks like now, when it is clean.

 It is a lot easier to sew when you have your station always set up, if you have the room to do that. I don't always have my portable sewing machine out, but everything else is always ready to go just in case I get the whim to sew. 

Sew the tapestry to the muslin.

After it is sewed, trim the excess muslin off.
 

Begin turning the pillow inside out.

Finish turning the pillow inside out.
Use your fingers or a sharper object in the corners.

Iron both sides, using high heat and steam. 
Press down hard on the seams.

Stuff it with good quality polyester fiberfill. I get a large box of it at Walmart. This time it cost me $19.95 (at Christmas it was $14.95). You can buy individual bags, but they are about $3.50 - $4.00 per bag. Make sure that you put stuffing in the corners of the pillow. I use a chopstick or wooden knitting needle for that. As you continue placing the stuffing inside the pillow, use your fingers to comb it and even it out. When you are all done, hand sew the opening.

The finished product!


I painted the dowels and made them into 
little fishing poles (or fairy wands): 

The End.

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