Making Pillows from Rummage Sale Fabric

This week, I’m using up a piece of material that I found at a rummage sale last summer for 25 cents. That’s right, one lousy quarter! It was really nice material, too. Sixty inches wide, light green toile. Lovely. I wanted to make some pillows for my living room.

Now, I think most people out there know how to make pillows, but then I was talking to my friend about this and she said she didn’t know. So I thought I would show you all what I did.

I used to make really schnazzy pillows, with intricate designs and fringe and everything, and then I got a dog who ate absolutely everything. So now I make ’em plain because she seems to leave them alone that way. Boring, but necessary.

I should also say that not only did I get the material at a rummage, I bought the pillow forms there too. They were marked for $2.50 each at a rummage and I asked the lady if she would take $2 each. She did. So for just over $4 I’ll have two pillows. Frugalicious! I usually only buy things at rummage sales that I can take home and clean. You need to do this if you have allergies or whatever, because you never know where the stuff was stored or what kind of pets the person has. So I washed the piece of material. The pillow forms were still in the package and very clean. The woman told me she had them stored in her sewing room and just never used them, and they didn’t smell musty (like sometimes when people keep them in the basement) so I wasn’t concerned about them. I did spray some Febreeze on them before using them for good measure.

First thing, take the pillow form out of the package and then use it as a template to measure for your pillows. Cut an inch around the pillow forms to allow for stitching.

If you have some fringe on one of the sides of your material (like I do above) then cut it off so you have a straight edge, and measure from there.

Cut two equal pieces, and pin right sides together. Then stitch around 3 and a half sides. Leave half a side to stuff your pillow form.

When you have the stitching done, stuff with the pillow form (it will take some wrestling) and fold over raw edges. Use a blind stitch to sew up the remaining opening by hand.

Then, viola! You’re done. Here are my two pillows.

Keep an eye out for material at rummage sales, because you can usually find it really cheap. Sometimes people buy material thinking they are going to use it, and then for whatever reason they don’t. So you can benefit from that when they sell. Like I said, I got a huge piece for just a quarter. This material made these two pillows and then some other items I’ll mention going forward. Another thing to watch for is old drapes, curtains, or tablecloths.  Sometimes these can make good pillows also.