Cushy, Comfy, Family Room Pillows

Inspiration for these family room pillows came from some pillows at Macy's that were $70 each. Yes, $70 for average-sized, simple quilted pillows. I know that you can easily spend even more than $70 on pillows, and I find that shocking! If you need two pillows.. that's $140 and three is $210! And I think you can never have too many cushy, comfy pillows.

So... I just thought I would try to make some myself.

I started with two pieces of 100% cotton unbleached muslin fabric and sandwiched fusible cotton batting between the two pieces.

I then loaded my sewing machine with lots of pretty khaki-colored thread, switched to a walking foot, and machine stitched straight lines. In my usual style, I did not start out with a plan and just used the sewing machine guides to space the lines.

I did use a disappearing ink pen to mark lines that I stitched in blue thread. It is difficult to tell from the picture, but after I did the machine, stitching, I handstitched tiny beads at the intersections of the blue threads.

For the second pillow, I used the same colors but varied the stitches a bit. This time, I did not start with diagonal stitches, and made stitches that were parallel with the sides of the pillow. For the blue stitches, I did three blue stitches very close together.

After curling up with the pillows a on several occasions to watch a movie or take a nap, my husband and I have discovered that tiny glass beads may have not been the best idea for comfy pillows... very pretty... just not very comfy.
To make the quilted pillow tops into pillow covers, you just sew the right side of the quilted top to two overlapping-in-the-middle hemmed pieces of fabric. Sew all the way around the pillow and when you turn the right sides out, you have your finished pillow cover. I love this easy method for making pillow covers -- the inside pillow slips inside the cover. The cover can easily be washed by pulling out the inside filling-- that is contained in a slightly smaller muslin pillow. I love freshly washed pillows as much as I love freshly washed sheets so being able to wash these pillows so easily is a big plus. I have seen some department store pillows that look like they would be impossible to wash. I don't get that; it's a germophobe's nightmare. I think that the pillows I have made have improved with washing - getting softer each time.

To make the actual pillows that go inside the covers, you just sew a slightly smaller pillow to slip inside the cover. There are so many possibilities for stuffing the pillows now - memory foam stuffing, down-like stuffing and the poly-foam type stuffing. I just used the basic stuffing for these and I can safely say that I spent less than $5 each. Lots of time, sure... but very little cash.

Time becomes meaningless in the face of creativity. Albert Einstein