25 October 2011

Napkin pillows!

Well Hi, another weekend come and gone :(. I have been really busy preparing my house for the winter months. Not to many new projects going on, but I do have a few up my sleeve. I can't wait to show them off but first I have to get them finished!

I wanted to share another custom project that I dared to take on over the weekend, you can see the first one here. It was quite a daunting task, I have to admit I was a little intimidated.

It all started with a trip to Pottery Barn (many of my project do) and I was browsing around trying to get some inspiration. I cam across the sale rack, yes they have one! There were some great looking napkins just sitting there calling my name. I picked them up and thought to myself, these would make great pillows for my living room. Now, I have seem pillows made from napkins MANY times. I couldn't credit just one person/blog for the idea. I just thought I would share how to get custom pillows for very little time and money.

Here you go:

Step 1:

Get yourself some great napkins, dinner napkins from wherever. Just make sure they are opaque enough to mask the "stuffing" inside.
The two I found were $3 each at pottery barn. But I only had two, so I needed backs for the "pillows". The napkins were 20"x20". Not a typical size (as I found out later), I found a great set at Bed Bath and Beyond, nice texture and color.

Step 2:

Pick out your thread and zippers for the pillows. If you don't already have them.  I don't of course. I've never even used a sewing machine before!



This is what I picked and as you can see it turned out great. They key is to bring everything with you..



Step 3:

Next you need to get everything pinned and ready to sew. Sewing a zipper is not that hard, it just take some time. Take your time and pin it well so it doesn't move and then sew it slow. :)
Also, you have to sew the pillow inside out, the two "good sides" face each other. Make sure the zipper is also facing in, it is a little confusing so check your work before you start the seam. I started with the zipper.


See how the zipper is facing down?  I pinned it to the backside seam of the napkin, and I repeated the same step on the other napkin. Here is what it looks like once you get to the end. It hard to sew the corners with a zipper. I just bent the zipper back and did the corners.


Step 4:

As you can see the hardest part is getting the zipper seam just right. It took a couple times :(  I also had some help!
The last part is pinning and sewing the other 4 sides. This part went really really fast. The most important thing to remember is keep it straight and even on each side.

I love them, I think they turned out great for about $8 dollars a piece!

So after all that you end up with this: 



On the Chair:

 On the Couch:



I like them on the couch, but I can see them form the other rooms on the chairs better. I'm sure I will flip flop them around a bit... :)

Have a great day!!

4 comments:

Sherry said...

I never thought to use napkins for pillows. Interesting. I definitely like how yours turned out. I'm your newest follower, I would love a visit if you can... http://decoratingwcents.blogspot.com/

Debbiedoos said...

So pretty! I love doing something so impacting that really is so reasonable in price. Why pay pottery barn prices when we can do it ourselves. Thanks for sharing.

Cindy Adkins said...

Wow, how amazing, Alyssa! I just saw your gorgeous blog at Debbie's and had to come over to say "hi!" I'm your newest follower--so nice to meet you.

Dawn@MakingHome said...

Hi , I'm just stopping by to say I am a new follower and I'm really enjoying you blog. I am sharing the Leibster award with you. It is for up and coming bloggers. You can check it out at my blog ,
http://makinghome-dawn.blogspot.com/
Congrats and keep uup the good work !
Dawn

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