Sweatered Pillows {Upcycling}

I am decorating my new living room in a Chalet-Chic style. Being originally from Colorado and a devout snow bunny, this style is a great throwback to my roots and an homage to my new Alaskan surroundings. I love the natural and comforting feel knitted pillows give to a room, but alas I do not have the patience to actually knit. What's a girl to do? ...buy beautiful sweaters off of clearance racks and hack them apart ofcourse! Read on to see how I turned a sweater into a pillow in just 2 seams...

This girl loves a bargain. I have an uncanny way of always finding a steal. Seriously, it like I'm a

scent hound on the hunt! I can sniff out a deal from the front of the store. One of the ways I save is my multi-task approach to shopping. When I am perusing a clothing sale rack, if I see a shirt or a sweater that I love but isnt in my size, I immediately sum up if there is a project I could use it for instead. In this case, I loved this $9 long sweater so much I bought it in one size to wear and one a couple sizes bigger to use for a pillow!

Now, once you have a sweater, either a tired one from your closet or a new one from the sale rack, you need to find a pillow to face-lift! This is mine...

Next layout the sweater inside-out. Once I had it laid out, I was able to place my pillow on top and wrap it to figure out where I needed seams. My pillow was a bit large for this sweater but if I sewed the arm holes shut it gave me the extra height I needed.

The lapel of the sweater is actually going to over lap and will be the part of the slipcover where you insert the pillow. Once you know how big you need the sweater slipcover to be for your pillow, pin it for a top seam and a bottom seam, as shown in this picture where the arrows are pointing. You are ready to sew- these are the only 2 seams you need for the project! Make sure the lapels are overlapping by a couple inches but that they are centered on the pillow too.

After you have sewn the 2 seams, turn it outside-in and insert the pillow! DONE!

Wasn't that easy? And we can all feel good about upcycling and reinventing a sweater- old or new. If you want to use a regular sweater versus the cardigan style I used, it will just add a couple seams. You could do a total enclosure and just hand sew it shut, or add a zipper, or sew 2 "lapel" like seams to make the overlapping design like I have.

My living room is so close to DONE I can taste it! I am just waiting on something to arrive from UPS!

Linking to these awesome parties!