Sweater Pillow

So the first thing I needed to do for Operation Restoration: Home Edition was to find stuff.  I sent out an email to all of my local friends asking for dressers, nightstands, tables, pillows, and any other furniture items that they would be willing to donate to my cause. Our bible study group all pulled together working our contacts and angles that we had to collect stuff. So I decided to start decorating and furnishing the family room first.  I figured this is where most of life happens and the most important room, in my opinion.

Denise, the mom of the family, is drawn to earth tones.  We painted the room a light cocoa color.  I also purchased some fabric from Joann Fabrics that became our inspiration color scheme for the room.  I spent a total of $35 on 9 pillows.  I reused stuffing from some other pillows that were donated so that really helped our budget in not having to purchase stuffing or pillow forms.

The two fabrics Denise liked were KAS fabrics called Cavallo Spice and Oslo Spice. They are pretty pricey at $44 a yard but I got them for $17 a yard during a killer sale and got 2/3 yard of each. To save on money I backed the pillows with a black corduroy I had in my stash.

I also had a sweater in my closet that I purchased a few years ago.  While I have always loved the gray color the cable knit hit my “I-have-had-children-pooch” just so and it was less than attractive.  So I pulled it out of my closet and literally hand stitched it into a pillow.  I unraveled some of the yarn from the sleeves and used a large plastic needle to hand stitch it.

I also found a cool khaki chevron patterned sweater at Goodwill for $2 that I made into a pillow as well.  That fabric was thinner so I was able to sew that one with my sewing machine.

While the two fabrics from Joann’s were the base colors for the room; Goodwill and second hand stores are great places to find unique fabrics to repurpose into pillows. The two sweater pillows add great texture to the smooth fabric of the couch.

Do you love pillows? I have a whole category full of handmade pillows I have made in the past.