Rockin' Floor Pillows

My kids LOVE these!  Little ones have a way of knowing when something is made just for them.

You can see the shape has become a little warped over time, but it's because of all the use the pillows have gotten.  I think if I give them a little extra stuffing, they'll be just fine.

I found the tutorial over at Living With Punks.  It is an amazing and super detailed tute; Living with Punks is one of my favorite sewing blogs.  This is the pic that sold me on the project

What a cutie!  My little girl does the same thing with ours.  The handles are definitely the best feature.

There are a few things I changed from the tutorial.  I made the height of the pillow a few inches shorter because my little people are still pretty short.  I wanted them to be able to plop down on them easily.

Also, I decided to use this insanely thick welting.

I had been eyeing the welting at Hobby Lobby for a while and finally found a project for it.  This made the sewing a little more difficult, but I think it was worth it.

I wanted to bring in some of this fabric I had left over from my throw pillows

Mixing the upholstery fabric with the cheap purple Walmart fabric and the old stripey curtain fabric made things a little wonky too, but overall I'm happy with the way they turned out.

They're perfect for drumming

Snacking

Leapstering

Or general loafing



I think my favorite part was letting our 3 year old help stuff them.  I took apart the old pillows that came with our sofa and used the stuffing for the floor pillows.  He loved unstuffing and restuffing!

Taking his job very seriously.

This was my first project using appliques... it isn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be!  Thank God for online tutorials.  I used Wonder Under as an adhesive and then did a really tight zigzag stitch around the edges of each letter

The stitching got a little w-w-wobbly there, but I'm OK with it.  I'm a recovering perfectionist and I consider posting pics of sub par stitching therapy for me.  Thanks for helping me on my road to recovery!

So glad you took the time to stop by.  Let me know if you make these for your kiddos!

Blessings,

Jamie

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Dress Up Your Chest

Awww.  Poor naked, lonely cedar chest.  I had just painted it white, but I knew it needed something else.  Let's see if we can dress her up a bit

Much better!  Plus, this just added more cushy seating to the room.  We now officially have enough seats for all the people in our life group.  Let the hosting begin!

I wanted the cushion to be the exact size of the top of the chest, so I knew I'd have to start from scratch.  Here's how I did it:

Materials

• 3 18" x 18" x 2" squares of foam (you can use 1 big piece of foam, but 3 small ones were cheaper for me)
• 1 1/4 yards of fabric (I used upholstery fabric)
• matching thread

Tools

• Electric knife
• Sewing machine
• Needle
• Sharpie
• Ruler
• Good scissors or rotary cutter and board

I started out by measuring the top of the chest

 got 3 of these

and lined them up.

You notice one is shorter than the others?  Well, that's because I cut it!

With this

hehehehe.  Knife-wielding maniac.  Since I'm a vegetarian, I rarely cook a piece of meat large enough to warrant using this thing.  I'm so glad I now have a reason for owning it!

Cutting through the foam is so much easier with this.  I've tried it with a regular serrated knife and the results weren't nearly as good

It isn't shown here, but make sure you mark your foam with a straight line to follow when you're cutting.  A Sharpie works great.

Now put all your foam pieces together and make sure they are the right size for the top of the chest

Next, take your fabric and cut it to the right size for your cushion.  My foam was 18" wide and 2" thick so I cut the fabric to 42" wide (enough to go all the way around and leave a 1" seam/mistake allowance).  I always cut a little bigger than I need, just in case.  I cut the length to 48" because my cushion is 42" long + 2" on each side and I wanted there to be enough to do the corners nicely.

Yes, I use an old wooden yardstick like your grandma had.  Yes, I know it's pathetic.  I promise I'll get a nice, clear ruler one day.

Now pin your fabric inside out around the foam.  You're basically making a long tube around the foam.  Pin the end up on one side so that the other side is open for when you want to turn it right-side out again.

Take the foam out and go sew it (inside out)!

Now turn it right-side out.  Take the foam and stuff it back in.  I like to roll the fabric back so I don't have to wrestle with it too much.

After you stuffed your foam back in, fold and pin up the corners on the open end

and then stitch them up by hand.

Don't worry if it isn't just right... no one will really see it.  I keep my hand-stitched end in the back and on the bottom of the cushion.

Now you're done!  Easy, right?

  

I might just make some pillows for the back of it.  I'll keep you updated.

What do you think?  Do you plan on trying this?  Let me know in the comments section!  Thanks so much for stopping by.

Blessings,

Jamie

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