pillow talk

Remember that Doris Day/Rock Hudson movie Pillow Talk? If you've never seen it...it's a fun little movie and might be worth a watch.

But that's not the kind of 'pillow talk' going on here today...so let's get to day 4 in sewing week. All about pillows.

Before we moved back into our house (after it was put together enough to be livable after the water damage) I had never sewn a pillow or even thought about doing it. If I wanted a new pillow cover or throw pillow, I'd go shopping. :)

But pillows are the one of the easiest things to sew! I actually think curtains (like we talked about yesterday) are even easier, but a close second would be pillows.

When we got our new couch (after our other couch molded in storage) it came with tons of pillows. There were probably about 8 pillows in two different fabrics. Yawn! Boring! They were each a shade of brown or tan with a paisley print. Here is an example of one:

They were 'ok' but not great. We kept this one and I pretty much recovered the rest of them. Now they look like this:
I fell in love with this fabric from JoAnn Fabrics. It was expensive, or I would have probably made curtains out of it. But I could justify spending the money for a small amount to cover a pillow.

Here's another one covered in a 'grain sack' type fabric. (also from JoAnn's) To be honest, we haven't been in love with this one so it mostly lives on the basement couch.

My favorite is this one covered in a fabric by Marimekko. It's called 'lumimarja' (the snow berries color - although now they have a bright pink in this pattern that is gorgeous!) and I bought several yards on ebay a few years ago. My intention at the time (pre-water damage) was to make basement curtains out of it, but I couldn't find enough yards to do that. So I used what I had to make a large pillow instead. This was my first time trying to do an envelope style pillow cover. I just totally made it up as I went, and it turned out just fine!

 When I mix my homemade pillows with others (like the embroidered one below from Pottery Barn) I think they work pretty well. Although, this room is seriously lacking in some color. We still don't have any pictures on the walls, and need a new rug, etc. Eventually I'll pick a color scheme and make some bright pillows too!

I've also made some pillows for the kids. Here is one of the more obnoxious fabrics I've ever used...but Elliott loves it as a pillowcase for his bed.

Because of this pillow, Elliott learned all of the football teams and can now watch football and know which teams are playing by looking at their helmets.

The girls got some pillows too:

The long, skinny one is covered in the same fabric as the girls' curtains. The bigger floral pillow with all the colors is from Mood and works with the rest of the colors in the room.

There are lots more places that need some pillows and I have some ideas...but probably have more than enough projects to keep me busy for a while. The rest of the pillow projects will have to wait.