Jen Russum

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On Crafting {proof that I made pillows}

I don’t craft very much. I admire crafters. I think DIY is cool. I love etsy and lots of handmade goodness. But it’s just not me. Mainly because I don’t usually have the time or the patience and I don’t like messes and projects sitting around my house {especially when my house is a 900 square foot apartment}. In my dream world, I will someday have a house with a craft/project room where I can indulge in DIY projects and my kids can work on book reports and Micah can have all his ish out for whatever he is working on at the moment and it can be our messy, happy, creative place. And we will shut the door when guests come over and pretend it isn’t there. But until that dream room exists and I have a bajillion extra hours in my schedule, my crafting is condensed to the summer. I pick one or two creative little projects during the school year that I would like to accomplish and I wait until summer and then I attempt to conquer them. I am a moderately successful crafter for about two months out of the year. And that is that.

The main project on my agenda this summer was PILLOWS. I found myself sick and tired of how much throw pillows cost. You know… like $20 for the pillow form itself and another $36 for the decorative case. Annoying. Even on sale, I rarely find decent pillows for less that $15 or $20 and that just seems like a lot to spend on a pillow that has no purpose other than adding a pop of color to a couch or bed. Somehow this complaint came up in front of my friend Anne and she convinced me I could sew my own pillows on her sewing machine. 
Soon after this conversation, I found myself here…

buying this kind of stuff (pun not originally planned, but now completely intentional)…
These supplies sat in my closet all summer, but about a week ago I finally went over to Anne’s and sewed my pillows. My sewing experience is VERY limited. As in the last time I sewed was in second grade when I made a tiny quilt for my American Girl Doll. My mom taught me to sew at that age, but my career was short-lived. After Kirstin’s bed had a quilt, I was pretty much done sewing until… last week.
I really didn’t know if I would be able to do it, but Anne gave me a quick tutorial on how to use her sewing machine and I just started making pillows. All. Night. Long.
{practicing}
I planned to make five pillows, but when I got done I still had more fabric and filling, so I decided I would make two more. When I made two more, I figured I would make one more, because I didn’t really foresee myself going through the process to get fabric and use Anne’s machine in the near future. It was now or never.
So I got into my car at 11pm with two bags full of throw pillows. Eight pillows total.
{the pile at the end of the night}
And I must say I am very happy with the result for being such an amateur. I mean I’m not giving you a tutorial or anything. You sew up the edges. You leave a fist-sized hole to add your stuffing. You fill it {most time consuming part}. You sew up the hole. You are done. Just don’t inspect my work closely. It’s not pretty.
But from far away, it looks like this….
{sofa – i didn’t make that back one… obvi?}
{love seat}
{guest bed – i made the black one to go with the gray one i already had}

{our bed}

I love the result! I encourage you all to MAKE SOME PILLOWS! We actually have another pillow on our bed now too, which was a really fun project and one I will give an actual tutorial for later this week.

Comments

  1. I'm so impressed! You got quite a lot done! I start a project and then about a year later it gets finished. And you picked some really cute material!

    Great job 🙂

  2. I can not even begin to tell you how amazed I am! And how ironic your timing is… I have a serious need for new pillows for the couch before my in-laws come next week but have NOT been able to justifying going and spending $200 on pillows! It's ridiculous out there. Thanks for the great info– I think I might try to borrow a friend's sewing machine 🙂