Sweater Pillow Tutorial

After showing the first sweater pillow I created, I got several emails asking for a tutorial.  Not that I needed a reason to make a second pillow...these pillows are soft and cuddly and perfect for the cooling weather.

Allow me to introduce you to my Goodwill sweater. This colorful guy was tired of seeing the back of closets - with his busy patterns and unique color scheme he had little hope of making it out of that closet. Until I found him.  I recognized the greens and blues and yellows and creams that are right at home in my living room color scheme. Better yet I recognized the tans and oranges as a hint of fall that I've been looking for.  So that, my friends, is how this sweater made it home with me.

As with all fabric I bring home from Goodwill, I washed him in hot water.  Washing and drying the sweater allows for some felting to occur. I prefer the slightly felted look - it ensures the sweater is close-knit and won't gape and show the stuffing or pillow insert. It also gives me peace of mind that the yarn won't unravel. 

After he was dry (I put him in the dryer for a little bit and then allowed him to finish air drying), I took off the arms. I did this because the size of my pillow was going to force me to go slightly above the body of the sweater and past the arm area.

The arms are sewed on with a long piece of yarn. It's easy to determine which yarn once you squint put on your glasses and get a good look. Using a seam ripper, I worked my way around both arm openings.

Don't worry if you lose track of which yarn is the yarn you are ripping. I just skipped that section and started up again when I found a spot that was obvious.  Once you are ready to go back and work on the skipped section, it's easy to rediscover the yarn used to sew both pieces together.  You can see how I skipped a small section in the photo below.

With the arms off, you're left with a lovely sweater vest that you may just decide to keep as it. Kidding!  But ripping out the seams, you ensure that the yarns are not going to ravel because you are keeping the knitting and its hems intact at this point.

Now it's time to determine the size of your pillow. I wanted a 15x15 pillow which unfortunately meant that I would have to cut off some of the sides and go up into the arm area. If your sweater is larger than mine, you could just close up the bottom and the top of the sweater and call it a day!

I used a couple pins to keep the sweater together and mark the path I was sewing along. I then changed my stitch length to the smallest length possible. I did this to ensure that I caught every single piece of yarn so that unraveling wouldn't be a problem.

If you look very closely at the photo below, you'll see the white stitching running horizontally across the sweater. I chose to put in two lengths of stitches running parallel to each other to provide extra protection against unraveling.  Once that is done, cut your sweater.

Once you've completed your pillow, fluff and enjoy!

You can see my pillow needs some much needed cuddling to get the stuffing in all the right places.

My living room is slowly becoming ready for the colder months. I just need to incorporate some darker, more saturated colors (I'm thinking a hunter green and/or navy blue to darken up the color pallet) and a knitted throw.

Last night this little guy was my go-to-pillow while watching television. He makes a much  better pillow than sweater, don't you think?

Pinspiring Sweaters

Edit: Pssst...check out the tutorial here!

 A long long time ago I shared that I was obsessed with Pottery Barn's amazing knitted pillows and blankets. Well, after being pinspired (yes, I made up a word just for pinterest) by Brassy Apple, I decided I needed to do something other than drool all over the pillows at the mall.

A trip to Goodwill, some slight felting, some seam ripping action, and a little sewing later I have myself a cuddly pillow.

Using Goodwill Sheets for Awesomeness

I'm not sure if you remember my very brief exclamations regarding my new found love and obsession with Goodwill sheets...they are what I used to make my rag rug and my pillow yesterday.  I'll let you in on my little secret: $2 Goodwill sheets (once washed in very hot water and dried) provide yards and yards of fabric that you can dye any color you want!!

So, after buying 4 queen and king size sheets for the rag rug, I had quite a lot of leftover fabric. Yesterday I used some that I had dyed blue for the backing of my bird printed pillow. Today I am showing a new pillow that I used a white sheet for piping and the sheet I dyed yellow.  Cheapest fabric ever!

After making my very first piping (much easier than I thought it would be!), I made an envelope case and stuffed my pillow in. That's when I realized that I made the pillow case waaaay too large. So, I plopped myself down in front of the television and spend the night ripping seams out.

Luckily my ruler was behaving better the next morning (of course it was the ruler's fault!) and the second time was the charm.

To emphasize the crisp white piping, I decided to add some white french knots to the pillow and love the texture they created.

No More Hording Fabric

I have a minor issue with falling in love with things (girl scout cookies, the best greeting card ever, amazing fabric my mom sent me) and being scared that I won't find the perfect person to send the perfect card to or the perfect evening to scarf down the perfect cookies...or the perfect project to use the most perfect fabric on.

My mother sent me a surprise package this summer with some leftover fabric from one of her sewing projects. The moment I opened the box I fell madly in love with the print and immediately put it in the closet because I wouldn't be using the fabric for just anything - I had to find something worthy of this fabulously colorful, bird-filled fabric.

Fast forward three months and it was still sitting in my closet. I'd venture in there every once in a while to bat my eyelashes at the hummingbirds and flowers and promise to find something suitable to use it for. Last week I finally came to my senses and decided to make a regular ol' pillow with it because then I'd get to enjoy the beautiful print all day every day.

I grabbed the last of the upcycled pillows I made last spring (check out the camping pillows I made here) and went to work on an envelope pillow case.  Now that I think of it, this is the ultimate upcycled project - the pretty bird fabric is leftover scraps from my mother, the backing fabric is leftover Goodwill sheets from my rag rug project, the pillow is an upcycled old feather pillow from our bed...pretty cool!

In order to make an envelope pillow case, I measured the pillow, added a couple inches, and cut out a square in the bird fabric that would be the front of the pillow.  For the back, I subtracted about six inches from one side and cut out two identical rectangles.

After hemming the two blue rectangles on one side, I sewed the pillow together.

And voila!

The perfect fabric turned into a colorful throw pillow.

Quilt Passions and Overconfidence

via Diary of a Quilter

Lately I've been drooling over handmade quilts. I'm not sure what has started my obsession but I do know every day I find myself drawn to new patterns and colorful fabrics. There is a conversation that takes place in my head regularly that consists of convincing myself all I need to be able to do is sew squares together in straight lines and that if I slowed my sewing down significantly, I bet I could even sew a straight line on the sewing machine. I think I've pretty much convinced myself of this now and I'm ready to start making some decisions about my future handmade quilt.

via pinterest

I thought I'd share some of my favorite quilts I've discovered from around the web - you know the ones that cause my heart to wildly thump and my unfounded beliefs in my quilting abilities to grow.

via Crafty Blossom

I've already started trying to choose a color palette (I have narrowed down about, oh, 50 options to 25 options). 

via Moda Bake Shop

Despite my overly optimistic confidence regarding my quilting abilities, I am aware that some of these patterns are harder than others. Don't worry though - that little voice has all but convinced me that I can accomplish all of these and more. I have visions of quilts on every bed, baskets of quilts in the corner, and winter snuggling in a quilt by the fireplace. 

via Moda Bake Shop

So, which one is your favorite? I'm taking votes as to which one I should attempt to make this summer and I need your help narrowing down the possibilities. Oh, and if any of you would like to send some helpful hints my way, this overly confident novice sewer would greatly appreciate it.

Appliqued Bird Pillow

Yes, you are looking at my brand new sewing machine!!! I received a big box in the mail in February and when I opened it, I was surprised with this amazing sewing machine. I've always loved sewing things - if I can't find a cheap, beautiful pillow or blanket, I have no problem just making my own...however without a sewing machine I spent many sad nights sewing by hand. This little machine will soon become my best friend - a pillow that use to take me 5 hours to sew by hand I can now complete in about 30 minutes.

When I opened my surprise, I immediately skipped off to the fabric store with yet another surprise I received - a gift card (it was as if the month of February was raining surprises) and bought some beautiful blue fabric.  I had a throw pillow that was looking a little worn and decided to warm up the machine with a simple pillow cover.

I love the envelope pillow case - so easy to sew and so easy to slip on and off pillows.

A couple summers ago I made several fabric flowers to pin onto summery dresses...unfortunately I made them too large and their weight pulled my dresses down dangerously.  They lived a sad life in a box until I decided to group them on the new pillow cover to add some interest and texture to my couch. 

The pillow stayed like this until last night. The month it sad on my couch it just never seemed to fit in and assimilate with the rest of the pillows.  I've been oogling applique projects lately and decided spur of the moment to re-do the pillow. 

I traced a bird onto a scrap piece of paper and used it to cut the fabric out.

I pinned the fabric onto the pillow after ironing small hems around the perimeter.

I have learned my lesson and will never again applique onto an already created pillow. Ugh, such a pain!  Let's just say there were several times I had to tear out some sticthes because I caught the back of the pillow case.

I love how it turned out! The white fabric has a white-on-white flowery pattern that adds some interest to the silhouette.

I may still add another branch with some leaves in the upper left...we'll see after I live with the pillow for a few days.

Already I love this little bird more than those flowers. I guess they are headed back to their sad little box until I find another way to use them.

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