Make A Sweater Pillow In 30 Minutes

Last year I loved the sweater pillows that Yvonne

at Stone Gable blog made.  I even had some sweaters

ready to go to copy the ones that she made but

 did not get around to making them until now. 

Her tutorial stated that she made two pillows in about an

hour.  I thought it would take me a lot longer than that but

 she was right about the time...it is a quick and easy project...

it only takes about 30 minutes for each sweater pillow cover.

The sweaters that I used for the pillows have already had

their arms cut off to use in making sweater vase covers.

You could buy or make pillow forms for this project.

I found some old pillows from the 1980's in my mom's attic...

...and some pillows and forms in my own attic not being used. 

First I'm going to show you the two pillows that were made

in an hour then I'll show some additional sweater pillows I 

made also since I had a several armless sweaters to use up. 

Put a pillow form inside or on top of a sweater to see if the

sweater will accommodate the size of your pillow.

These sweaters came from the thrift store and were about $2 each.

Measure the width and length of your pillow form. 

Add a couple of inches to each measurement to use as

an inch seam allowance.  If you have a ribbed or finished edge

 don't cut that off...it adds to the uniqueness of the pillow.

Yvonne used chalk to mark where to cut the sweater.

I used straight pins...either way.  My pins don't looks like

they are in a straight line.  The cable knit was kind of curvy.

  Really, the knit stretches to fit the pillow so if you

are off at little one way or another, it looks OK. 

Put right sides of the sweater pillow cover together.

Pin and sew the three cut edges.  

Take out the pins as you come to them.

You could sew the whole pillow cover by hand...you don't have to have a machine.

Here is the first pillow after sewing the three cut

edges together:

Turn the pillow cover right side out.

Put the pillow cover on the pillow form.

Try it on for size to see if you need to take bigger seam

allowances, etc.  I did not like the way that the pillow form

did not fill up the pillow corners of the sewn edges so I 

used rubber bands to make "Turkish corners". 

This pillow-making trick gives gathers to the corners and

makes them rounded instead of pointed. 

To close the fourth side of the pillow I used some buttons

sewn on with just a couple of stitches each since they are 

not functional and won't have stress on them. 

This little tube of white and cream buttons from Hobby Lobby has come in so handy on many occasions. 

The second pillow in the hour used a tank top for a cover.

It actually fit so well width-wise that I only had to cut

the neckline and built in bra off of the tank top.

The  needlepoint panel showed through the knit so I put it to the backside of the pillow. 

That pillow only had one seam to sew. 

It was a tiny bit snug once the pillow was inside to close

the ribbed edge so I pinned it closed ...

...and used a quick hand stitch to finish that edge. 

I used a little stitch on the "good" side and a longer stitch

on the "bad" side.  Even the big stitch barely shows in the knit.

The second pillow got single stitch buttons added on the edge too.

Something that I should I have with that pillow was to sew

the buttons on the edge before stitching it closed so if I 

wanted to use the pillow form before next winter,

 I could have just taken out the running stitch and 

the buttons could have stayed in place for next year. 

Well, those two pillows that I originally made using

 Yvonne's one-hour formula looked a little lonely on the sofa

 so I spent a couple more hours making four more pillows. 

Use the best features of each sweater to highlight on each pillow.

This big chunky knit turned out to be my favorite pillow.

The sweater was cut off under the armpits.  The pillow form

fit well into the body of the sweater width-wise so it only had

 one seam to sew also. The ribbed bottom was closed with

 buttons sewn on.  A sewn tuck was also taken in the ends of

 that ribbed edge to keep the corners from looking too pointed.

This Christmas pillow can have the sweater cover snipped off

in a few seconds come next December.

The "noel" pillow cover had its Turkish corners made

 by wrapping thread instead of rubber bands around 

gathered corners before turning the pillow back

 right side out and stuffing. 

This snug cover had to be hand-stitched closed too...

only takes about 5 minutes. 

The shrug sweater needed the help of another sweater to 

cover the pillow form and not show too much "skin".

  A sweater with just a plain body was used to cover the

 entire pillow first.  The pillow fit the plain sweater well

enough that only one seam was needed.  The ribbed edge

was hand sewn to close the pillow.  

The nubs of the remaining arms of the shrug and part of the

collar were cut off  and sewn shut on the sewing machine.  

The shrug cover was added over the plain cover.

A button was sewn on that fit through the button hole (that

originally had a ribbon tie to go through it) to close it shut.

Also a sweater pillow was made for the recliner in the room

out of a cable knit poncho.  This piece was not a very tight knit

but it was going over a pillow that already had a neutral cover.

Yvonne advised that if you want the knit to be tighter, you can

shrink the sweater by washing it in warm water and drying 

in the dryer...that will make the yarns closer together. 

I centered the pillow under a row of double cable knits

 to find the best place to cut the poncho so the front

 of the pillow would look symmetrical.

The knit covers up the remains of sea shells that not come 

off of the pillow when hot-glued on last summer.

So here is the sofa with its new sweater pillows:

Although the pillows are pretty on the sofa, when 
Tom Kat gets ready for a nap there, the pillows
get piled up in the recliner until nap time is over.

To go with the whites of the sweater pillows, I put an 

arrangement of white spider mums on the coffee table.

Some are in vases normally and some are submerged.

 It is an eye-catching look that 

magnifies the flower underneath the water. 
If you would like to see how the mums were submerged
click on the blog post "How to Submerge Flowers". 

The pillows are thrilled to have sweaters on since we had 

some of the coldest days of the year recently in the

"Deep South Deep Freeze".

As the sun melted snow and ice off of the roof of my house

it was still below freezing temperatures outside.

As the water came off of the roof, it froze 

again on the backside of the bushes ...

...and gave an ice coating on anything on the

 ground like the pinestraw...

...or Halloween spiders and fake pumpkin vines that (oops!)

 must have been stuck behind the bushes instead of someone

not putting them away in the attic where they should be. 

Groundhog Day was yesterday and Phil says more winter 
days ahead so dress those pillows up in sweaters!