Sweater Pillow Tutorial

I came across some cozy sweater pillows while shopping the other weekend and wanted to bring them home with me. I like to change the covers on my pillows quite often so I don't like to spend a lot of money on them (especially when we have a sewing room full of fabrics available!). 

So the other weekend when Country Mouse and I got together we tried making our own and loved how they turned out.

We thought we'd share with you how we made our own sweater pillows. It's the perfect way to recycle some of those sweaters that have been taking up room in your closet since last season (you know you have some!). And a quick project - you can probably finish one in less than an hour.

Materials/Supplies (for an 18" x 18" pillow):

• One old sweater (a cableknit makes a beautiful cover, but if you only have a plain one you can hand sew some kind of embellishment to it at the end like we did with the blue sweater)
• 18” x 18” Muslin or any cotton fabric for backing your sweater piece
• 25” x 18” fabric piece for your envelope backing
• One 18” x 18”pillow form
• Thread
• Sewing machine
• Walking Foot (helpful, but not absolutely necessary)

Instructions:

1.Determine what part of your sweater you wish to use for your pillow front. Be sure you are able to cut it the size of your pillow form! Cut out an 18” x 18” square.

2. Cut from the muslin one 18" x 18" square. From your fabric for the pillow back, cut two 12 1/2" x 18" rectangles.

3. Pin the sweater piece right side up onto the muslin and stitch ¼” seam around all four sides.

4. Take one of the rectangles you cut and fold over ½” along the long edge and press Fold over another ½”, press and pin in place. Stitch down the fold, sewing about 1/4" in from the folded edge. Repeat with the second rectangle. 

5. Lay the 18" square right-side up, then place the rectangles right-side down on top of the square with the folded and stitched edges overlapping in the middle. Pin around all edges.

6. Sew around all edges of the pillow with a 3/8" seam allowance.

7. Turn the pillow cover right side out, push out corners. Insert your pillow form and get cozy!