Pillow Fever

Our pillow selection in the living room has been a little lackluster (at best), so I wanted to add a couple new pillows to the lineup. Here are the pillows that came with our couch.

They have yet to make a debut (we got our couch a year ago). I don't like them. At. All. They are sitting in our front closet eagerly awaiting a yard sale. Instead, we had some ikea pillows, which are fine but they really weren't filling up the pillow cases very well.

I saw this at a link party and was in love and started making one right away.

V and Co Shag Pillow

Well that was dumb. I didn't stop to think about the fact that I have no rotary cutter so cutting all of the necessary pieces would take forever and a day. I also didn't think about how tedious things make me feel like the project is going to take the rest of my life and make me have little motivation to finish.

Thankfully, we were having people over in two days and once the fabric mess was all over the place I had to finish before I cleaned because what is more of a hassle than cutting a bajillion pieces of fabric? Cutting half a bajillion, having to clean them up all up, then getting them all back out again to cut the other half bajillion.

Now in reality, I'm pretty sure it didn't take me forever and a day (because I'm done) and I may have used slightly less than a bajillion pieces of fabric. The tutorial at V and Co is really good, so if you're interested in making the pillow I'd invite you to head over there because I was not about to keep up with step by step instructions as I was drowning in little rectangles of fabric.

Oh, and I also made a super easy pillow cover. Fold in half, sew two sides, leave one open to stick the pillow form in, close the hole and you're done. I won the fabric from Crafty Girls Workshop in a giveaway at A Law Student's Journey and I love it! I was a little nervous about buying fabric that I couldn't see or touch, but I couldn't be happier!

Here are some notes from the years I spent making the shag pillow:

1. If you don't have a rotary cutter BEWARE!
2. I didn't use quite as many strips per row as she did and it still looks quite shaggy.
3. You can guesstimate on the measurements. After the first thousand few rows I stopped measuring the width, I just tried to cut kind of in a straight line. No one has noticed that my rectangles aren't completely uniform. 
4. I used a pillow form instead of stuffing because I found two in my closet (score!!). Just alter the measurements from the tutorial to fit your pillow. I didn't leave any extra for seams because I wanted the pillow to be tight in the cover and knit fabrics are kinda stretchy. 
5. I used leftover fabric from my tshirt quilt backing (which was really just a king size jersey sheet set) for the pillow, so I didn't even have to buy any fabric! I guess that's not really a tip, I just like the fact that this didn't cost anything.

Now go start a project without thinking it through!!! Just kidding, that's not the best idea. But it worked out for me this time : )