“Another pillow project?” you say.
“You boys just made pillows from bandanas. ….and before that, you splattered pillows with paint”
Yeah, I know, we are a little pillow-happy in this house. But these are such a clever idea, and cheap.
2 things that get our hearts racing.
I found a pile of these European grain sacks at a local junk shop.
15 bucks each,
They are made from very thick woven linen. The center stripes are added to help farmers/merchants quickly identify what’s inside and where it came from.
Did I mention that they are huge? Well they are. About 4 feet deep and 20 inches wide.
I picked this one….
I washed it – I don’t know where it’s been – but didn’t dry it.
Sure it’s a little worn, read that as “stained”, that just gives it character.
This is the part where I would give detailed instructions on how to sew a 20 inch square pillow, leaving a 10 inch hole at the bottom for squeezing in a down pillow insert.
I’m sparing y’all that part…it’s pretty easy. I do advise steam-ironing your pillow before and after sewing…so all the seams are nice and crisp.
I had enough grain sack to sew 2 of these……The sides are from the original sack, I just closed the top and most of the bottom.
I had just enough grain sack for 2 20 inch square pillows.
A 20 inch square pillow gets a 22 inch down-feather insert. Always 2 inches or more bigger, and always down-feather.
BUT wait, there’s more.
But before filling with an insert, and taking my cue from these cool-as-heck grainsack pillows,
I thought I’d add a little red stenciling.
Jamie picked up these 5 inch stencils at Harbor Freight and Tools when we bought our bar cart.
See how puckered they are?
I have a plan to make them flat on the heavy weave linen.
This stuff will stick paper to paper for eternity, but just a light spritz on the back of my stencils will be just enough to hold it in place on thick fabric.
I roll the stencil down with a rolling-pin, just to make sure it’s a tight fit…..
Then I stipple on some red latex house paint. Martha Stewart “Barn”. Remember that color from our Christmas front door?
Stipple means that I apply a small amount of paint by dotting the brush straight up and down. Start with an almost dry brush and keep adding paint layers to the fabric as it dries.
After the paint completely dries…… about an hour maybe…….I carefully pull my stencil off.
Told ya it was simple….
Wanna see what they look like?
BA-BAM!!!!
Pretty great with those bandana pillows.
Am I right?
15 bucks for the grain sack, and Ikea down pillow inserts are 12 bucks each.
19.50 for each complete pillow……
You couldn’t buy a pillow-case at Pottery Barn for twice that much.
Clever and Cheap, just like I told ya…….
