Placemat pillows

I've seen placemat pillows all over blog land, so this is certainly not a novel idea, but I'm going to show you anyhow because I'm sure there's still someone who hasn't seen it!

Since summer is winding down, a lot of stores have their "summery" placemats on sale, and they are CUTE!  I picked my placemats up for a whopping $.99 each.  When you go to pick up yours, make sure they have two sides (most do), otherwise you'll have a cool cheap placemat, but no pillow.

Anyhow, for this project, you'll need your placemat, a seam ripper, sewing machine with thread (or a needle and thread to hand sew), and polyfil or stuffing from a pillow you already own.  Easy list, right?  This project takes less than twenty minutes, so it really is easy- no reason to complicate it.

Take your seam ripper and open up the shorter end of the pillow with as small of an opening as you can to stuff.  I had to open mine all the way because a) the two layers of fabric were STUCK together and I had to really push hard and wiggle my fingers around to get them separated and b) I used the stuffing from a pillow that had lost it's "fluff" to be comfortable for my every night sleeper, but was still perfect to use in an accent pillow.  Since it wasn't actually polyfil, I needed a wider opening to fit the formed (cut in half) pillow into.

Stuff your pillow, and sew it up!  Pay attention to your thread colors.  My "fruit" pillow had white stitching on the white side and blue on the opposite, so I sewed it with a white bobbin, and blue thread through the upper threading.  Sew sides appropriately, move your stuffing around to get it evenly distributed, and enjoy!

These pillows are so much cuter than the six year old pillows I've been toting around with me that the dogs have chewed the corners off when they were puppies years ago since college...and they were $1 each.  It doesn't get much better than that!  Now go find some fun clearance placemats and make yourself some cute pillows!

P.S.-- I have some fun news.  I sold my first piece!  The little chair I recently showed you found a new home. I let it go at my costs since it was my learner chair, but I'm still thrilled with the feeling of having someone else appreciate my work enough to pay for it.  It sold in less than 24 hours of it's sale posting.  Happy dance!