Piddly Pillow Project

It's not news to any of you that I have dogs. What might be news, however, is that my dogs think they're people. Shocked? I didn't think so. When faced with the option of lying on the floor or snuggled into the couch, the couch wins 100% of the time. They're small, so I really don't mind them being on the couch, but what I do mind is that they have claimed my couch pillows as their own.

Because of this, my pillows are a wreck. And they are decorative, so they don't have a removable (read: washable) cover. What to do, what to do...

Never let it be said that I had a problem I didn't creatively try to fix.

So I pulled out my handy dandy sewing machine and went to work!

I wanted to save as much money as possible, so I decided to reuse the stuffing from the old pillows. This took FOREVER to re-fluff. I literally thought I would die at the ripe old age of 107 before I got it finished. But then my TV show ended and I realized I was actually almost done. Not nearly as bad as I thought after all! 

My plan (as always) was to take pictures along the process to show you exactly what I did. However, my desire to work uninterrupted outweighed my desire to have quality pictures, so all I have are these few snapshots that I took on my cell phone. 

I am now accepting applications for a live-in photographer to capture my every move as I work on a project. Or, we can just go with these cell phone shots and call it "art." 

Since I was recreating the pillows from some I already had, I did remember to take a "before" picture. I got the pillows all laid out, went to grab my camera, and this is what I saw when I turned around to take the picture. Now do you believe me about how much they LOVE pillows?

I had a flat sheet from a set we were given as a wedding gift. The fitted part ripped while we were trying to make the bed up after washing the sheets. Evidently that was not an appropriate time for us to test our tug-of-war skills. (um yes, we act like children sometimes) The sheet ripped apart halfway, so instead of throwing the whole set away, I saved the flat part to use for this project. This was cut into squares and sewn up to form the actual pillow part of my project. See?

I bought this fabric about six months ago intending to use it as curtains in our bedroom. Evidently it's important to measure your window height before you plan curtain panels. It's been stuffed on my shelf ever since.

Oscar wanted to help SO bad, so I let him hold one side of the fabric while I cut out the squares for the covers.

I sewed up the pretty fabric on three sides then inserted a zipper on the fourth, so the cover can easily be removed to wash. Hallelujah! No more unwanted doggie slobber on my pillows!

And here's the finished project!

~SMurph~