I'M PONDERING PILLOWS AGAIN

I'm in a pillow making mood again. I've always wanted some wool pillows to use in the living room during the winter . Last year, I made one pillow from a wool Ralph Lauren skirt that I found at Goodwill (click here to read about that, if you wish). That was as far as my wool pillow project went last winter. This year, I'm determined to get an earlier start. (Is it too early to think about winter???)

Always on a budget, I checked out Goodwill for more suitable wool and found several pieces of new fabric from some one's fabric stash. It was $4 for as much as I could stuff in a plastic bag. I ended up with several different wools for a total of over 5 yards of wide fabric.

I decided on a monogram pillow, so I thought how hard could that be now that I had all of this luscious wool. At first I was thinking I could hand embroider the monogram like my grandmothers always did, but I decided that was too much work for these arthritic fingers. Since I have had some success with the satin stitch on my sewing machine, I thought that would be the answer. But as I was doing a sample run, my 41 year-old sewing machine decided it was tired of doing the zig-zag, and the lever broke. No replacement parts could be found by anyone for my trusty, old machine. It still sews a nice straight stitch, however. So, now on to plan C - applique. I decided to cut out my monogram from felt and sew it on. Did you know that you can buy felt made from recyclable plastic that washes and dries wonderfully?

In anything that I make, washability is important to me. I always prewash and dry all of my fabrics before making a project. I washed all of my Goodwill wools in Woolite in the machine, then dried them in the dryer on low. They came out great.

I used osnaburg (sometimes called hop sacking) for the background of the monogram. It's cheap - $2.99 per yard - and has a nice texture after laundering.

All in all, the pillow cover cost me under $2.00. The most expensive thing was the zipper for the closure and I had a 40% off coupon for that.

Just call me frugal --- but then I'm not even going to talk about what a new sewing machine is going to cost me!

I'm linking up to the following parties. Be sure to check them out for lots of fun posts.

Cindy at My Romantic Home
for her Friday Show and Tell.

Donna at Funky Junk Interiors
for her Saturday Night Special party.