Pillow Talk

Let’s do a little pillow talk today. It was time to finally replace/update the pillows that we got when we bought our couch. They weren’t bad, but they definitely weren’t “us” –  I knew we could do better. I don’t have any pictures of them in our current place, but here they are in our last apartment. Definitely time for an upgrade, right?

I wanted to somehow incorporate bright blue in the room to tie-in the blue mirror that we spray painted and also add a little extra pop of color. I also knew I wanted something with a geometric print, like an ikat or some type of polka dots. I was initially drawn to the 20″ Kingston Pillows at Crate & Barrel, but they were $59.95 each – JUST for the covers. Our current pillows are 25″ so I would have also needed to buy new inserts in addition to the $120+ for the pillow covers. Too much! Even though we still have some gift cards leftover from our wedding, I figured I could do better (and would rather use those for an espresso maker 🙂 ).

My search then turned to Etsy, where I found these made-to-order pillow covers made out of Premier Prints Peacock Blue Denton fabric for $35 a pop. I fell in love with the fabric and decided I wanted to make my own (this Etsy shop has a ton of cute stuff though, so I recommend you check it out).

I found the print online for $12.97/yard on Warehousefabrics.com and bought 2 yards for about $37 with shipping and tax. It was more than enough for my two 25″ pillow covers and I have plans for another project with the leftover fabric.

To make the pillow covers, I measured and cut the fabric so the piece was 27″x 27″ (allowing a bit of room for the seam and to fit the pillow inside) and folded it over so that I would only need to sew 3 sides instead of all 4. I then used the cutout from my first pillow to quickly cut out the same measurements for the second pillow.

I turned the fabric inside out, pinned the sides, starting with the top corner so I made sure it was straight, and used a colored pin at the end so I didn’t sew too close to the top. Once I sewed the 2 sides, I added a zipper to the top so I can wash and change out the pillow covers easier.

SUCH an improvement from our old pillows. I paired them with some old small pillows I’d previously recovered and these guys from cb2 that I got with a gift card. I love the mix of colors, patterns, textures, and sizes. I also love how they pull out the orange from our wall art and tie in the blue from our mirror and the vintage bottle/vase on our coffee table.

Amazing the difference new pillows can make on a room. Anyone else do any pillow updating or sewing lately?