Pillows from Reclaimed Materials

Need new throw pillows? Look no further than your closet! After I purged clothing that I no longer wear from the closet, I started thinking of ways to recycle them rather than toss them out.

First, I cut them into pieces for a quilt. I'll let you know how this works out!

I had a few sweaters which would not be good in a quilt. I started looking around. I had a old red pillow in the couch that doesn't work in my current color scheme. So I covered it - its the green one in the picture. I simply cut the sweater to fit the pillow. I sewed around three sides of the pillow cover making sure to back stitch at each end. I cut diagonally across the corners to ensure a smoother corner when the cover was turned to the right side. I put the pillow inside. If the cover is too large, this is a good time to make it smaller. I closed the fourth side by hand using a blind stitch. I used a double thread so it would be stronger.

I prepared the cover for the brown pillow as I did for the green one. Since I didn't have another pillow, I stuffed it with all the scraps from the clothes I used for the quilt. I stuffed it fairly solidly so it wouldn't be so lumpy. Again, I closed the fourth side by blind stitching.

I spent absolutely no money and have two new throw pillows to add to the coziness of my eclectic home!