A Pillow for Your Head

As a Christmas/birthday present last year, I received a full sized sofa, chair and a half and ottoman from a close friend. While the couches are SUPER comfortable, they had been well broken in by my friend's family and friends and pets. The structure of the furniture is great, but the fabric is well worn and starting to fray in spots. This means I'm on a hunt for new pillows and fabric for making slipcovers.

So off I headed to Goodwill to see what I could find. Sure enough they had 3 feather and down pillows for $1.99 each. That's $6 for 3 nice pillows. Don't worry, I did do a sniff test to make sure that they hadn't been in a smoking home! Once I removed the cases from the pillows, I had perfect pillow forms for a heck of a lot cheaper than had I bought the new. Another bonus? I'm following one of the 3 R's. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! I picked up another feather form for $3 at a thrift store and grabbed an odd size one at Burlington Coat Factory for $5. Now, what to cover these pillows with?
As is my nature, I turned to the internet and blogs for my inspirations. One of the first places I landed in blogdom was Just Another Hang-Up. Upon seeing her precious gathered pillow tutorial, I knew that I needed one just like it.

Suzanne's Version from Just Another Hang Up

my copycat version, sans flowers

The sweet gathered pillow wasn't the only one that I found and fell in love with. Over at Presser Foot, I discovered a felt pillow COVERED with circles. Sounding odd? Check out Kelli's version, based on a Pier 1 Imports original.

Kelli's Version

While I wasn't overwhelmed with her version in that color, I fell in love with the original from Pier One. During a trip to a Colorado Springs fabric store, I found the perfect color felt discontinued thus marked down, plus an additional 20% off. Wahoo!! The first part of the tutorial instructs you to cut 1 1/2 yards of felt into approximately 3 inch circles. Remember my shopping pic? That's what all of those circles were for. Not all of the circles are pictured! After cutting hundreds of circles, and sewing back and forth for a couple of hours, I ended up with this version for my couch. I love the modern lines and the pop of color. If you look closely in other pics, you'll notice that it's the same color as the lamps.

I have to say, I'm thrilled with how they look!

Disclaimer: Each pillow has a zipper in the back to allow me to wash the slips or change them as I want to, but I did not install them. Zippers and I do not get along. Inevitably I end up trying to sew them to my finger, or put them in wonky. Ugh, ugh, ugh. All the zippers, both of these, past and hopefully future were installed by my mom. There I said it, admitted the whole blogging world, I'm a grown-up that still needs her mother! ;)