From skirt to pillow

Here’s a pillow cover tutorial that will have you keeping your eyes peeled for discounted skirts …

I bought this skirt three years ago because – 

   a) I liked the colour.

   b) I really liked all the rouching it had going on.
   c) It was velvety and I like velvet.

   d) It was on sale for €1. Hells yes.

Too bad I never tried on said skirt before purchasing it. It fits, but it’s a bit disastrous. So, the reason I upcycled this skirt is – 

   a) I really adore the fabric so I’m not ready to part with it. Yes, it was dirt cheap, but I think it would make a fabulous pillow.

    b) When wearing this skirt, this particular fabric makes my thighs look like two sea lions fighting on a beach. Hand me the scissors.

What you’ll need : a skirt you no longer wear {or a super-cheap one you spot on sale}*, a pillow the same size or slightly smaller than your skirt, scissors, a needle and thread – or if you’re fancy, a sewing machine. Alas, I do not have one. Woe is me.

* This really only works if your skirt is the same width from top to bottom – i.e. a pencil skirt of sorts.

Step 1 : turn the skirt inside-out. Sew across the top leaving a bit of space from the edge. This particular skirt had an elasticated waist, which I cut off before sewing.

Step 2 : turn the skirt right-side out, and stuff with a pillow. From here, you can gauge if the sides need to be taken in a bit to better fit the pillow. If they do, turn your skirt inside-out again, and sew where necessary. Step 3 : once the pillow snugly fits inside the skirt, turn it right-side-out, stuff pillow inside, and sew the pillow closed using a ladder stitch. There is the option to sew  this opening a third of the way closed from either side while your skirt is still inside-out and has no pillow in it. This gives a cleaner line on the outside, and once you feed the pillow through the remaining opening, it means you have less of a ladder stitch to do.

Et voila! This will hopefully feed my pillow obsession for the next week or so. And I hope I’ve otherwise saved some skirts from the skip 🙂

p.s. It was complete coincidence that I paired skirt / pillow with black and white stripes in both the before and after pictures. I nerded out over that a little once I noticed it. Because I’m big time lame.