I saw a quote somewhere that said “throw pillows are the adult version of stuffed animals and you can never have too many of them”. To this statement, I wholeheartedly concur! The downfall, however, is that throw pillows can be pricey and I am VERY frugal so I actually don’t own as many throw pillows as I would like.
One day, I was diddy-bopping through the seasonal clearance isles of Hobby Lobby and I saw a stack of charming place mats that stopped me in my tracks. Immediately I thought “I can make throw pillows out of placemats!“ (I may have said this out loud and startled the other shoppers but I can’t
truly recall). Not only was the face fabric really cute, the placemats had an interlining and a back lining so they were really substantial. After snatching all of them from the shelves, I scurried back to the fabric section to get a roll of Heatbond and a box of polyester stuffing. (They sell the stuffing in bags also but I use the stuffing for lots of projects plus, it was also on clearance so I totally grabbed it!)
Once at home, I fired up the iron (that only gets used for craft projects because I don’t iron my clothes) and got to work. Here’s what I did:
1. I cut a strip of Heatbond and put it with the paper side up along one edge of the inside of a placemat. Quickly touching the iron to the paper side of the Heatbond, I moved along the entire edge. I worked my way around all 4 sides, repeating the same steps with each side.
2. Once the edges were cooled, I removed the paper liner from all of the Heatbond strips and put the second placemat, face side up, on top. (Note, it’s ok if the edges don’t perfectly match up all the way around. Handcrafted home accessories do not have to be perfect).
3. Working quickly, I used the hot iron to fuse both placemats together with the Heatbond. I left an opening the size of my fist along one side so I could stuff the pillow. I let the edges cool again and inspected each side to be sure everything fused together. If there was an area that wasn’t stuck well, I quickly touched it with the hot iron again, let it cool and then checked again to see if it was fused.
4. When all of the edges were cool and fused (except where I had left the opening), I stuffed the pillow to my desired fullness and used the iron to fuse the open area shut.
Within less than 20 minutes, I had a really cute, one-of-a-kind throw pillow and when I posted pictures on Facebook (like/follow me at https://www.facebook.com/tinkerbelle1122/), the pillow sold immediately while requests for more pillows poured in. Placemat pillows are now a staple of the on-line boutique inventory and are delightfully scattered throughout Chez Big Daddy!
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