Cozy Pillows From Sweaters

Here's a neat project that's low cost, easy to do and adds tons of coziness to your fall home.

In spring of 2010 I started seeing sweater pillows at upscale sites like Eddie Bauer and Anthropology. Too expensive for my tastes but I knew I could duplicate that Anthro look at Goodwill price. Wait, that's the story of my life, lol!

I found this creamy acrylic blend sweater at GW and snatched it up pronto. Visions of sweater pillows danced in my head!

No progress pics since I wasn't blogging then and the fam was already getting waaaay too many "look what I made" emails.

HERE'S A TIP-cut a fabric backing for each sweater piece to stabilize it. I used muslin. This will keep your pillow piece edges straight and eliminate bunching and distortion when you sew your pillow. I zigzagged the edges and top stitched over that to make sure every bit of yarn was stitched down. You do NOT want your lovely pillow unraveling after you're finished with it!

I was able to use the front and back of the sweater to make two pillows. I used muslin for the backing and stuffed them with fiberfill.

And here they are on my chocolate brown couch. I knew I wanted some vanilla/creamy pillows to offset the strong colors, and these pillows are perfect. And since the sweater was acrylic, the pillows are washable. Bonus points!

Then I added more of my artwork and put it all together.

Love the bright colors for coziness, but those sweater pillows give just the right touch of grounding white and texture. Cheap and easy to make, too. Win, win!

I'll be joining a few of the parties on my sidebar, come visit and link up, it's always fun and interesting!

Pillow Cleverness

When I saw this pretty creamy cable knit sweater at my favorite Goodwill, I knew I would finally have the warm and wonderful throw pillows for my couch that I keep seeing online at upscale and expensive sites like Eddie Bauer. Fortunately it was too small to fit me or I would have worn it, it was that nice. (Okay, so I really wanted the pillows more than I wanted to lose that last 5 pounds, lol!)

No progress pics since I wasn't blogging then and the fam was already getting waaaay too many "look what I made!" emails. Here's a tip-cut a fabric backing for each sweater piece to stabilize it. I used muslin. This will keep your pillow piece edges straight and eliminate bunching and distortion when you sew your pillow. I zigzagged the edges and top stitched over that to make sure every bit of yarn was stitched down.



And here they are on my newly recovered couch. I knew I wanted some vanilla/creamy pillows to offset the strong chocolate brown and red, and these pillows are perfect. And since the sweater was acrylic, the pillows are washable. Bonus points!