You might read the title of this post and think, “Wait, if it sparks joy, then why recycle it?”. Well, here’s the thing… The Marie Kondo purge that has taken over the world at the moment, thanks Netflix, has inspired me to go through my house again. I read her book a few years ago and actually was able to downsize the amount of stuff that we owned significantly. But over the years since reading the book and since the airing of her recent show, we have accumulated A LOT more stuff in nooks and crannies of our home that we just don’t need.
The biggest purge for me personally was my clothing. I really was started to HATE putting away laundry. It took forever, and I never had enough space or a place for everything. Also, my body has changed a lot over the last couple years, having a baby can do that. So, like the thousands of other people also adding Kondo to their Netflix cue and getting busy, I started holding each item of clothing in my hands and asking myself if it sparked joy. I really don’t form an emotional attachment to things, but there were a couple items of clothing that did spark joy but I never wore. One item was this soft and squishy shawl that is heaven to touch (also my favorite color at the moment, blush) and a summer dress from Anthropologie that I love the pattern of. I thought to myself, “Well, I don’t wear these… but I don’t want to get rid of them…” and then I remembered how sad our pillow covers looked on our couch and an idea sparked.
Let me first start by saying that I am not a professional at sewing. I’ve made a few quilts (small baby ones) and I’ve sewn curtains and some pillow cases and fixed a couple seams in torn pants… but that’s it. Anything else would be a challenge. I’ve thought about actually taking a sewing class at my local community college just so I could hone in on those skills a bit, just haven’t had the chance. The point is, even YOU can do it!
First, measure your pillow inserts or your existing pillow case. I happen to have 18”X18” Ikea pillow inserts and covers. I simply used my cutting board and cut enough for two pillows from each fabric. You simply take the fabric for one pillow, and set one piece on top of the other, with the right side (patterned side) facing inward. You will be sewing them together on the “inside” of the pillow, so you won’t see any stitches. Because you’re sewing on the inside of the pillow, your thread color choice doesn’t matter because you won’t be able to see it. Once you have your fabric lined up, you simply sew three sides of the pillow together. It’s okay if it doesn’t look great or isn’t perfectly straight, you won’t even notice it once you flip it inside out and stuff a pillow into it.
You should note what type of fabric you are using. This sundress was made out of a jersey material and it was hard to sew. I had a hard time getting the material to hold stitches. Cotton would be preferred but I would recycling something that I loved. But just use as a note if you decide to try this with fabric, buy cotton!
Once everything was cut, and you sew your three sides, you’re almost done. On the final side (fourth side of the pillow) I did it the easiest way possible. I went from one corner and stitched about a third of the way down the side of the pillow and stopped. Picked up my sewing foot and started from the opposite corner and stitched down about a third of the way down the same side just from the opposite corner. Doing this left about a 6 inch gap in the middle for me to shove my pillow insert into the case. Now, if you’re fancy and know what you’re doing, you could always sew in a couple button holes or a zipper to seal the pillow up. That is past my level of expertise and a football game was about to come on, so… I just made a simple flap.
After all was said and done, I probably spent about an hour on this. I would have been done faster if the jersey material hadn’t been so difficult to work with. Overall, it was a success because we now a have a fun change in our living room, we recycled something we already had, and we didn’t spend any money!
Thanks for stopping by! Please leave a comment and say hello! If you decide to tackle this project, please tag me Instagram or share with me on Facebook, would love the inpsiration!
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