Last year I saw all these DIY bloggers making pillows out of placemats and I thought it was a genious idea. So right after last Christmas I scoped out Target and found this placemat for $1.98.
I snapped it up and decided that I would be ahead of the game and make a pillow from it some time this summer so that when winter rolled around I could just pull it out and be ready to go. Well, I made it on Saturday. Yup, totally ahead of the game. But the good news is that it is such a quick and easy project that it only took a few minutes. Here’s how you can make one:
Step 1: Pick out a placemat that has two pieces of fabric sewn together so that you can put stuffing inside.
Step2: Use a seam ripper (or scissors or knife) to cut one of the stitches and pull out enough thread to open up a hole to stuff the pillow.
Step 3: Fill the inside with stuffing. I stole some stuffing from a pillow from our old couch that we got rid of last year. You could use polyfill if you don’t happen to hoard old pillows.
Step 4: Close up the opening. I used my hot glue gun to glue the front and back fabrics together. I also put a little dot on top of the threads to keep them from unraveling any more. If you prefer you could stitch the opening closed.
And that’s it! You’ve now got a new Christmas pillow for only a couple of dollars and a few minutes of time.
I love the snowflake detail on the pillow.
This year after Christmas I highly recommend that you head out and find some clearanced placemats to turn into pillows. It’s so much less expensive than buying Christmas pillows. I know that’s what I’ll be doing!
Sarah Hill says
Forty-plus years ago I began making pillows from place mats. However, I have never found one that had two mats sewn together. I simply purchased two mats alike (or two that went together), stitched them up and stuffed them. My children loved them.
Cat says
That’s another great way of doing it!