Recently, when I went down to Georgia to the
Country Living Fair – me and my sweet friend Deb at
Confessions of a Plate Addict hit up a few of her
favorite Goodwill shops. We each bought several
Christmas Sweaters. (not as bad as the ones above.)
She even bought a plaid Christmas jacket, and I can’t
wait for you to see what she did with it.
So – how does a Goodwill Christmas Sweater start
out as a sweater and end up as pillows?
Easy – I’ll show you how.
I decided to create two pillows instead of one.
I cut a square from the front, and another square from the back.
I wanted to take advantage of this beautiful deer design.
Originally, I thought I would not use the snowflake
pockets at the bottom, and would cut around them.
But, I decided they would add some more character
to the front of the pillow, so I cut my pillow front
so both the deer design and the pockets were centered.
I ended up with a 16×16 square.
For the backside, I used drop cloth.
I already had some leftover from another project
– so it was FREE. Free is good.
I created an “envelope” back, where two sides of fabric
slightly overlap each other, forming a closure.
I utilized the finished edge of the dropcloth since it
already had a hem.
I cut two pieces – each at 16×10. Then, I pinned the
right sides of the dropcloth to the right side of
the sweater square.
Here is a little tip my Mama taught me when I was learning to sew.
Place your pins at a perpendicular angle against the outer edge,
and place them about 3/4″ in…
… so you can sew all along the edges and not worry about
having to remove pins as you go.
Once you have sewed all four sides, remove the pins.
Prior to turning your pillow right side out – clip all four corners,
as shown above, so the corners look better once turned.
Then, carefully pull all four corners out and flip the pillow
to the right side.
I love how the pockets can be used to tuck in
some cedar, or maybe some secret notes from Santa.
Like I said, I chose to use both sides of the
sweater so I could get two pillows, but you could
use the back of the sweater for the back of the pillow.
The back of the sweater also featured the pretty deer design.
Can I just say…. I LOVE these pillows.
They say Christmas and Winter and are perfect with
the look and feel I am going for this year – which is
very traditional with a touch of Ralph Lauren.
I’m pretty sure Ralph Lauren would not be caught dead with a
Goodwill Christmas Sweater Pillow in his home.
But….
… he doesn’t know what he’s missing.
Goodwill Sweater… $4
Dropcloth Backing….$0
Pillow Inserts….$0
(recycled from other pillows)
Creating One-of-a-Kind Pillows….$Priceless.
Not to mention, whenever I look at these, I will remember
a very special weekend I spent with my dear friend, Deb.
I have two other projects I will be sharing with you, using the
remnants of this VERY same sweater. I can’t wait for
you to see what I did with the sleeves.
I would LOVE it if you would PIN this to your favorite
Pinterest Christmas Board…
Remember I said Deb at Confessions of a Plate Addict
bought a beautiful plaid jacket at the same time I
bought my sweaters? Lookey lookey what she
made with hers….
I know!!!!
Can you stand it?
Click HERE to see how she made them.
Join me later in the week for more sweater madness.
Speaking of madness…can you believe we are giving
away another Ipad Mini? Yes, we are!
You have 24 chances to win by Liking or Following the
Blogs below on either Facebook or Pinterest.
You only have to complete one entry, but the more you
complete – the more chances you get!
Giveaway runs from Nov 17th thru Nov 24th at 5pm.
Winner will be announced and notified by email on
Monday, Nov 25th.
Good luck everyone!
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Confessions of a Plate Addict says
So cute, Barb! I love it! And you know I want that baby goat! Thanks for the fun project!…hugs…Debbie
View CommentKATHYSUE says
Love these pillows so much. The reindeer could not be any more perfect for Christmas, I pinned away!!
View Commentxo
Sandi Allen says
Love how your pillows turned out!
View CommentThanks for the tutorial and Thanks for sharing!
Cincy says
Beautiful pillows!!! They came out very nice. Anyone would love to have these pillows for Christmas.
View CommentCindy
Gee says
Both pillows are beautiful. I have no Christmas pillows. Hmm…
View CommentIdeas dancing away in my head now.
Kate says
Hi there! I love your pillows! I do have a question, probably a dumb one, if you don’t mind. When you cut the sweater apart, why doesn’t it unravel? Do you stitch your pillow shape, and then cut outside of that stitched line? Inquiring minds need to know! 🙂
View CommentBarb says
Hi Kate – its not a dumb question at all. No, the sweater did not ravel when I cut it. I also sewed a little wider seam than normal, too. Hope this helps. Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
View CommentKate says
Thanks! I’m off to the thrift store to scout out the perfect Christmas sweater!
View Commentadrienne says
How cleaver and festive.
View CommentPamela says
Love your pillows! They look great. I need to go out and hunt some old sweaters down.
View Commentsonny says
you have outdone yourself Miss Barb.. Those are beautiful and now I gotta go to goodwill tommorrow and its all your fault lol…
View CommentBarb says
Sorry. 🙂 Well, not really b/c I know you will LOVE making these pillows, too. xxoo
View CommentSharon says
I love how your pillows turned out, Barb!
And no, I can’t stand it… I have to go see Deb’s pillows!
Thanks for the inspiration!
View CommentSherry S says
Love the pillow ideas. Looking forward to see what you have done with the sleeves! PS Nice giveaway too!
View CommentMarty@A Stroll Thru Life says
Oh Barb, I love your sweater pillows, how fun is that and great tutorial too. Love the ones that Debbie made out of the jacket too. You two are so clever. Hugs, Marty
View CommentLittle Bitty Damn House says
LOVE, love, Love these pillows! And if I know Ralph L., he WOULD definitely love them too!!! Beautiful!!!!
View CommentCynthia says
Barb these pillows are fantastic, love the way they came out!!
Cynthia
View CommentJenna says
Totally fabulous! I love the buttons up the front one! Very very cute!
View CommentBliss says
Your pillows and Deb’s are fantastic. And I’m like you when I think of Christmas sweater, but cute pillows could change that!
View CommentYvonne @ StoneGable says
I love love love this sweater pillow! Very clever! I will have to make a few of these.
View CommentLisa@Nothingbutblueskies says
Woman, you are my hero! So darn cute!!! Love them. Pinned them. Now I am hunting for an awesome sweater to copy them!
xoxo-L.
View CommentJulie says
Love them! I wish I could find that cute of sweaters!!
View CommentBev says
Those pillows are just beautiful. Ralph Lauren would be jealous . I made some sweater pillows and used drop cloth but wasn’t sure the size to cut. Thanks for that information. I will be doing some Goodwill shopping 🙂
View CommentBetty819 says
Barb,
View CommentWhat a cleaver idea to do and they are beautiful! How in the world did you cut the sweater into a square without all the yarn falling apart? I don’t crochet or knit and guess that is why I can’t vision doing this but I love Debbie’s square pillow too. Reminds me of a plaid sport coat that was made for me in high school. As a youngster, I also had a taffeta plaid dress like it. Thanks for reviving those memories. I never look at clothing at thrift shops because the plus sizes usually don’t have anything stylish or either they are so worn out that they should have never been acceepted by the trhift shopt in the first place. Our local hospital has a thrift shop boutique and if you wear “14 and under” there are some beautiful career suits/dresses to chose from. You look at the designer labels inside and recognize that their original price was not cheap to begin with. thanks for sharing all your ideas with us.
Heather says
Great idea! These look much better as pillows 🙂
View Comment