How to make Fall pillows out of thrifted sweaters! Repurpose old sweaters into new and vibrant pillow covers for your home this fall. This easy sewing tutorial shows you how! 

Make Sweater Pillows

Who else is excited for Fall!! It might be my FAVORITE time to decorate. I love the cooler weather, pumpkin spice everything and the vibrant fall colors. Fall gives me major inspiration to decorate! I have been bringing LOTS of color into our home over the past two years. One of my favorite colors right now is bright PINK. And while it might not seem like a fall color, let me assure you that you can bring ANY color in for fall and make it work!

I am giving away a $50 Savers gift card at the bottom of the post – be sure to enter! 

Take an Old Sweater and Turn it into a Sweater Pillow

Sweater material is naturally thick and cozy. There are so many sweaters that are knit, soft and perfect to make cozy warm pillows for Autumn. And while it might seem daunting to find sweater material to make pillows out of, it’s not! Thrifted sweaters are perfect to make into pillow covers! Have you ever washed a wool sweater in the washing machine and you are SO upset when it comes out completely shrunk down? I think everyone has!! And what do people do with those sweaters? Donate them!

What Kind of Sweater Makes a Good Sweater Pillow

Head over to your local Savers Thrift Store and gather some gorgeous sweaters. The wool sweaters that have shrunk make perfect pillow covers too! I headed to my Savers and had a ball going through the sweater section! There are sweaters in EVERY color under the sun. How pretty would it be to do all off-white pillows for winter? I might do that one next. You can find sweaters in all kinds of patterns and textures.

Pick a Sweater that Matches the Colors in Your Home

Since I am loving COLOR in our home, I found sweaters that were very vibrant and went with our new rug. Lots of pink and purple. My sweaters will all kinds of different textures and materials. One is wool, one is cotton knit and one is a tweed poncho that I found.

Pillow Covers are Easy to Store

If you’ve been reading my blog for long you might know that I LOVE making pillow covers. It’s SO easy! And I love switching my pillow covers out for different seasons and holidays. It’s so much easier than having a million pillows everywhere. I just take the pillow covers off and store them flat like this:

How to Make Envelope Enclosure Pillow Covers

The idea behind making sweater pillow covers is exactly the same as my regular pillow covers. I make an envelope back enclosure which makes this project SO easy. There are NO zippers. It’s just plain, straight stitches. My kids could make these pillow covers. SO easy!

How to Make Fall Pillows out of Thrifted Sweaters:

Make the Front of the Pillow Cover First

Measure the pillow insert you want to use

• Add 1 inch to each side.
• Cut out the pillow front.

Make the Back of the Pillow Cover

• For the back, take the measurements of the front and add 8 inches to the total on the WIDTH. Then cut that piece of sweater in half. This is your envelope enclosure. It will create flaps on both panels that hold the pillow insert inside the cover.

Sew the Back Seams

• Sew a seam on the back panels so there are no raw edges.

Pin the Front and Back Panels Together

• Flip the front of the pillow cover over so the inside is laying on your work surface.
• Lay the two panels on top of the front panel, with the front sides facing inward.

Sew the Panels Together

• Sew the pillow cover all the way around all four sides.
• Reach inside the pillow cover and turn the pillow cover inside out, which is actually the good side of the sweaters.
• Insert the pillow inserts inside of the covers.

How to Make a Rectangular Envelope-Enclosure Pillow Cover

For the long, rectangular pillow that I made out of the poncho I wanted to save the fringe from the outside of the poncho. So I used that fringed edge for one of the sides of the enclosure. On this pillow I made the enclosure side the front of the pillow. Usually the flaps on the pillow are in the back because they aren’t as nice look as the plain front. But on this pillow, I wanted to feature the fringe so I used the enclosure on the front. This might seem a little overwhelming, but it really isn’t. This pillow is made exactly the same as the other pillows, I just use the back of the pillow as the front.

Enjoy Your New Fall Sweater Pillows

Now I have pillows that go along with my bright and COLORFUL decor, and they are very warm and cozy – perfect for Fall!

We LOVE Savers. We are there at least a couple of times a month. One of the things I LOVE about Savers is that the inventory changes over so quickly. They literally get hundreds of thousands of items in every month. So many cute brand-name clothes, furniture, home decor, bedding. accessories, shoes, etc. I love browsing the side of the store that has all of the items packaged up in bags. There are treasures everywhere!

The post How to Make Fall Pillows out of Thrifted Sweaters! appeared first on Tatertots and Jello.

Thanksgiving Placemat Pillow Cover

I love a quick project. And I love pillow covers. They are such an easy way to change up your decor easily and inexpensively. Plus, it is so much easier to store a pillow cover than a pillow with an insert. All you have to do is take the pillow cover off and change it out for a new one.

A few years ago I discovered that a really easy way to make a pillow cover is with a cloth napkin or placemat.

So when I saw this GRATEFUL gold placemat at Target’s Dollar Spot a couple of weeks ago I knew it would be so cute as a pillow!

Thanksgiving Placemat Pillow Cover

Here’s how you can turn a placemat into a pillow cover in 10 minutes:

Supplies:

Placemat

Fabric – You will need about twice as much fabric as the size of the pillow cover.

Sewing machine, or needle and thread.

Thanksgiving Placemat Pillow Cover

Directions:

Measure the placemat you are going to use. You will need two pieces of fabric that are the same height as the placemat and about 4 inches less in length than your placemat. So if your placemat is 19 inches in length and 14 inches in height, you need two pieces of material that are 15 inches in length and 14 inches in height.

Once your backs are cut out, sew a seam down one side the height of each of the pieces of material.

Then lay your placemat on your cutting surface with the right side toward you. Lay each of the two pieces of backing material on top of the placemat with their right sides facing inside toward the right side of your placemat. You want the sewn edges of the material to overlap in the middle of the pillow cover, with the outside edges facing inward. You are going to turn the whole thing inside out once you sew it.

Then sew along the edges of the placemat, sewing the two pieces of backing fabric onto the pillow cover.

Turn the pillow cover inside out, which exposes the outside of the pillow cover.

Insert your pillow form.

Enjoy your new pillow cover!

Easy peasy!!

Here are a couple other tutorials I have done on making pillow covers:

Six Tips to Create Easy Pillow Covers

Easy Spring Pillow Cover Ideas

How to Make Corded Pillow Covers

How to make a Stenciled Pillow Cover

How to make a Heat Transfer Pillow Cover 

How to make a Valentine’s Day Pillow Cover 

How to make a Painted Pillow Cover

How to make a pillow cover out of napkin

How to make a Geometric Cut Pillow Cover 

Have you ever made a pillow cover? 

Share your ideas with us in the comments! 

xoxo

The post Thanksgiving Placemat to Pillow Cover in 10 Minutes appeared first on Tatertots and Jello.

I love making them. I love changing them up in my home. They are such an easy and inexpensive way to change the look of a room or decorate for different Holidays.

I have been moving my family room into a turquoise and grey color scheme. So when I was sent Plaids Simply Screen system — I was excited to make a pillow that fit into my new color decor!

I have to say — I think this new Plaid Simply Screen kit is such a cool idea! Here’s how it works:

• You design your image on your computer and then print it out on your printer.

• Then you match the design to one of the Simply Screen Print paper — matching the “sticky” side of the Screen Print paper to the front of the printer design.

• Make sure you use the enclosed squeegee to adhere the printer paper to the Screen Print paper. And tape the two sheets together.

• Then you put the image into the Screen Print Light Box. Make sure the image is at the top. Time it and take it out when the timer goes off. (I also heard that the image sets better if you put a piece of glass over the top).

• Once it’s done. put it into the enclosed tray filled with hot water. They say luke-warm water, I found that hot water worked better. I let it soak for awhile.

• Then you scrub it with the sponge. Don’t scrub too hard, or parts of the image can come off that aren’t meant to come off.

• The first layer will reveal a light blue layer, but you need to scrub deeper to a white layer. There will still be a thin screen on the sheet.

• Once you get the stencil scrubbed, let it dry.Then put it where you want to the design to be and tape it in place.

• I added a frame around the design with painter’s tape. I just measured, taped it in place and filled in the space with fabric paint.

• I love the Simply Screen fabric paint. Put it in a paper plate and use the squeegee to apply the paint to your surface.

I originally meant to add a word to the middle of my design. I was going to add — Believe, but decided that I liked it with just the design — that way I can leave it out all year!

Simply Screen is a self contained screen printing kit that contains everything you need to make screen prints that you can use over and over again.  The Simply Screen Kit retails for $39.99 and is sold only at Hobby Lobby.

Now I have a chic pillow to keep out all year!!

You can find out more about Simply Screen at Plaid.

 I also made a fun gift for my husband with the Simply Screen kit — you can see if over at Kojo Design!!

xoxo

What are YOU working on this week?

PS — I hope you can join me tomorrow night  — December 7th @9-9:30 pm EST for a FUN twitter chat and linky party — where we share will talk about messy moments and craft fails and surviving the holidays.

There will be gift baskets, $100 Target Gift Card and a $25 VISA gift card given out at the twitter party AND another $100 Target gift card, a $25 VISA gift card given away at the the linky party!!

I think it will be a great time to connect, share great ideas and funny messy moments. I hope you will join in!!

You can find out more about the Clorox Messy Moments contest here or on the Clorox Facebook page.

I hope someone I know wins!!!

The post Quatrefoil Screen Printed Pillow {tutorial}!! appeared first on Tatertots and Jello.

I decided to make some Halloween pillows to compliment this color scheme with a modern twist. Aren’t these fonts fun??

I also love all of the Silhouette projects that have been going around the past few years, and I thought it would be fun to make a “Pretty Witch” silhouette.

{I’m not a big gory Halloween lover, I like the “happy” side of Halloween}

I started off with some pillow covers from Ikea. These pillow covers are cheap and make the project come together so much faster! I think they were $6/cover. I pull out the pillow forms from other pillows and use them over and over again. This makes it easier to store holiday decor and it’s much cheaper than having to buy pillow inserts every time I want to make a pillow.

These pillows are super easy and fast to make.

I made all three in an hour.

To make these pillows, this is what I did:

• Heat Transfer Material
• Craft Cutter. I used my Silhouette.
• Pillow Cover.

1. Design your image on your computer.
2. Be sure to flip the image horizontally. This makes your letters come out the right way with the Heat Transfer material.
3. Print it out. Be sure to do a test cut first to make sure the blade doesn’t cut all the way through the material.
4. Peel off the excess Heat Transfer material, so only the image you want on the pillow shows through.
5. Position the sticky side of the material on the pillow where you want it to go.
6. Iron the image on the pillow.

I also used  metallic silver Heat Transfer for the “OR” to mix things up a bit. I love how shiny it looks!

That’s it!! Just put your insert inside and you have  spiffy new Halloween pillows to display for this Spooky Season!!

PS — If you want to make these pillows, I would be glad to email you the SVG file. Just leave me a message with your email address in the comments

PPS — I’m over at Brown Paper Packages today sharing my new and improved School Command Center. I’m trying to get organized this school year – fingers crossed!! And, I’m loving the bicycle fabric I found for my bulletin board!!

xoxo

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