Is it just me, or are “quick projects” NEVER quick?

I’ve been wanting to make little white pillows for our sofa for forever – not just because it’s January.

So when I found these cute little red velvet ones at Cost Plus last week on clearance, I nabbed them.

Oh, you fancy, huh? You call it “World Market”? My brother and I (the Downton Abbey brother, I have three) were talking about this store, and he kept calling it “World Market”, and I just kept cracking up. I’m assuming they are trying to change their image, because when you think of global shopping, is “Cost Plus” the name that says that to you? My brother and I decided that he should go to his local “World Market” and tell them that he knows their real name is “Cost Plus”. He said the manager would probably take him to the back room and buy off his silence. But it will always be “Cost Plus” to me.

Anyway, cute clearance pillows. And I will probably use the red velvet pillowcases next Christmas for some seasonal decor. But white is what I’m going for these days.

I started to cover these pillows in white fleece. I thought they would be cozy for winter, and, let’s be honest, it’s the first white fabric I found in my stash when I started this project. Unfortunately, I miscalculated before I cut the fabric and had to start over. Darn!

So then I remembered my other white flat sheet. Perfect! And I can rip it instead of cutting to save time. (I got a late start on this project, so I wanted to cut as many corners as I could.)

I wanted to make pocket pillows – I don’t want to bother with a zipper, but I want them to come off to be washed. The Boy and Baby Girl are really into crawling all over the sofa cushions and pillows, so I know they will get dirty.

The pillows are approximately 20″ x 11.5″. I doubled the length and added some for overlap. I also added about 1″ to the width for seam allowance. I measured the length and width on the sheet, snipped with scissors, and ripped the fabric apart.

I started by hemming one side of the strips of fabric. (I did both pillows at the same time – it saves time.) This will be the end on the inside, so it doesn’t have to be pretty – it just needs to not unravel.

Since I used a sheet, I decided to use the wide top hem of the sheet for the outside overlap of the pocket.

So I  folded the fabric into a little envelope, with right sides on the insides, wrong sides on the outside.

I created an overlap (which ended up being a bit too long, but it still works) and pinned the top and bottom of the fabric. Then I stitched a seam along the top and bottom.

After sewing the pillow closed, I cut a little wedge out of the corner, which allowed me to open up the seams to press them. (You know I love to press open seams.)

Then I flipped the pillowcase inside out and stuffed the pillow inside.

These are very simple pillows that add just a touch of white to our brown sofa. I haven’t decided if I like them as little side pillows by the arms or centered on the back pillows. Considering how much these sofa cushions and pillows are used to build forts and trains and obstacle courses, it will probably change daily.

————————————————————————————————

This post is part of a 31 Day series about improving my days by being more PURPOSEFUL.

You can read more about it here. You can find all the posts in this series here.