Friday, December 6, 2013

Maybe The Easiest Project EVER!! Pillow Covers From Place Mats

 I am sitting here watching the pouring rain, basking in the glow of all the Christmas lights hoping the electricity will stay on as the ice begins to form later.  I decided to write this early today because this is one super duper easy trick for covering pillows.  With the holidays upon us, you might want to use this one because I sure did.  Don't you love when serendipitous things happen?  I have been looking for some replacement pillows since we moved here in July.  I have not been able to find any in the color that I wanted.  Yes, I could have made covers, but I also could not find fabric that I liked.  So, I just simply waited.  Something always comes along.

Lo and behold, my friend Connie, who lives in Dallas, sent me a link to a site called Hometalk and they had this idea to make pillow covers from place mats.  GENIUS!  Pure Genius!  Possibly the easiest project ever!!  This works for lumbar pillows, you know the rectangular ones?  I had two that desperately needed to be replaced.  Little boys, aka grandsons, had created some stains on mine.  Then there is the fact that I have had them for years and the slick fabric, maybe rayon?, had started to shred.
I love these pillows and have been very sad that it was time for them to go.  But, all good things have their time and they have definitely had their time.

As soon as I saw the link she sent, I headed right to Target because I knew they would have some holiday place mats in red.  I mean, it is Christmas, right?  Luck be a lady, because they had the perfect place mats.  Heavy, red, trimmed in some dull silver sequins, $3.59 each.  Perfect!  Bought two and headed home.

This literally took 15 minutes to do - start to finish.  I LOVE when that happens.  First, remove the stitching from one end of the place mat.  Did I mention they have to be fabric and sewn?  Well, they do.
Now, open the end up.  These were lined with reinforcement - even better!
Now, simply put the pillow form inside and stitch up the end.  I used my machine.  If you don't have a machine, you can hand stitch it, use stitch witchery and iron it together, or use liquid stitch.  This may be the easiest pillow project ever!
I am so excited about these!  Quick, easy, inexpensive - perfect.  I could not have bought home dec fabric for the cost of these two finished place mats.  Then you have to cut out the pieces, sew them together, pray they fit.  You know how it goes.
This may have been the easiest DIY project ever!  Thanks Connie for sending me that link.  Serendipity at its finest.

Give this project a try if you have some lumbar pillows in need of an update.  There are so many pretty place mats available right now.  Let me know if  you try this project and send me a picture so I can share with others.  Who would have thought of place mats.  You may have, I sure didn't.

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

Sharing ideas makes life so much more fun and projects so much easier.  Social media does have great benefits.  donna





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