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The Frugal Homemaker

Your guide to turning your house into a home... one DIY project and yard sale find at a time

Placemat pillow tutorial + my favorite Christmas vignette

December 11, 2012

DIY Placemat pillow tutorial

Rhoda is having a Christmas vignette linky party over at Southern Hospitality and it just turns out this little area on my hearth is my favorite vignette this year.  What’s a vignette you ask?  Dictionary.com says it is “any small, pleasing picture or view.” 

I just love this little area – the bench, the pillows, the brown throw, the fresh greenery, the candlelit lantern and the tree in the background.  I wish my whole house looked this cozy!

So I thought this would be a perfect time to show you how I made the snowflake pillow you see in the front.  The pillow in the back is my DIY sweater pillow that I created back in my 31 days of Pinterest projects series.

If you didn’t guess it when I showed you my Neutral & Vintage Christmas mantel, that pillow is actually made from a placemat!  Yep, a placemat and it is soooo easy and simple to make.  Seriously you can do this in about 10 minutes.

DIY Placemat pillow tutorial

You will need a bag of poly-fil and any placemat that you want to use.  BUT, your placemat must be a two-layered placemat.  In other words it must be 2 pieces of fabric sewn together.  Mine is white on the back and when I rub the edges in-between my fingers I can tell that it is 2 pieces of fabric sewn together.  Make sure to find a placemat with 2 pieces of fabric sewn together.  This particular placemat was $2.99 and came from Target just a few weeks ago, I don’t see it on their site but it may still be in stores.

DIY Placemat pillow tutorial

I got the poly-fil at Hobby Lobby – $2.99 – 40% coupon = I paid $1.79 and have some left.  So this pillow cost me less than $5.00.

DIY Placemat pillow tutorial

Take a seam ripper and open up a little bit of the seam on the bottom of the placemat.  You want a hole just big enough that you can stuff the poly-fil in.

DIY Placemat pillow tutorial

Then start stuffing!  Make sure to get it stuffed well into the corners and plenty full.  I used about 2/3 of a 12 oz bag of poly-fil in one placemat.

DIY Placemat pillow tutorial

Then pin closed and either sew by hand, by machine, or you could even glue with fabric glue, hot glue, or use stitch-witchery or heat’n bond tape.

DIY Placemat pillow tutorial

I had my sewing machine out so I just fed it through real quick to close the seam up.

DIY Placemat pillow tutorial

Fluff it a little and it is a perfect pillow!

DIY Placemat pillow tutorial

The colors were perfect for my neutral theme this year and I can keep it out through winter too if I want.

DIY Placemat pillow tutorial

Oh, and notice something different under the tree??  Can’t wait to show it to you and reveal my whole tree on Thursday!

But right now, I have another placemat to turn into a pillow.  I found this pillow at Kohl’s $7.99 -  60% off – additional 20% off = $2.55.  I LOVE Kohl’s prices and discounts.  It’s about to become another cheap placemat pillow Smile

DIY Placemat pillow tutorial

These would make great gifts as well.  And you can use any placemat, it doesn’t have to be Christmas themed.  Pick up a matching set and make some new easy pillows for your couch.

Heading over to link up at Rhoda’s vignette party!

Oh and if you are wanting a great gift idea, head over and check out Laine’s post today in our “A Homemade Christmas” series.

Gingerbread Caramel Popcorn

A wonderful gift idea if you don’t keep it and eat it all yourself after seeing her amazing pictures!

Don’t forget to come link up any homemade Christmas projects to our linky party on Friday!  I can’t wait to see what kind of decorations, food, and projects you have been working on.

A Homemade Christmas linky party button

11 Comments LABELS ~ DIY projects

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Comments

  1. Deb says

    December 11, 2012 at 9:08 PM

    Thanks for sharing…I need some new decorative pillows and I believe I, EVEN I, can make these 🙂 Can’t wait to see all your decorations!!

    Reply
  2. Mary Anne says

    December 12, 2012 at 8:23 AM

    I adore your little pillow. Looks so easy to do from your post..but sewing??? That sounds alot like ALGEBRA to me and I break out in hives at the thought of x = y plus a needle and thread 🙁 So I’ll just look at yours and hope that I run across a cute little snowflake pillow at a really low price…no sewing involved. Hey, I wonder if I could hide staples?

    Reply
    • Lisa says

      December 13, 2012 at 4:32 PM

      Use hot glue! Or velcro with sticky backing!

      Reply
  3. Heather C. says

    December 12, 2012 at 9:46 AM

    Thank you, thank you for this post! I’ve been trying to think of affordable gifts to buy/make for our family and these placemat pillows fit the bill perfectly! We’re actually heading to Kohls tonight so I’ll be on the lookout for some cheap placemats 🙂

    Reply
  4. Antonella @ The Comfortable Home says

    December 12, 2012 at 11:39 AM

    Wow beautiful! I love the placement (errr pillow) fabric!

    Reply
  5. Christi {Jealous Hands} says

    December 12, 2012 at 12:48 PM

    What a cozy corner! And the pillow is so fun – I am on the hunt for placemats now! xo

    Reply
  6. Lisa says

    December 13, 2012 at 5:01 PM

    Such a great idea – thanks! I realllly like your neutrals and browns sofa vignette!

    Reply
  7. Michelle O says

    December 17, 2012 at 10:06 AM

    Thanks for this! I made two this weekend. Well, I still have to sew them closed, but LOVE it!!

    Reply
  8. Alice says

    December 17, 2012 at 11:43 AM

    Can you tell me where you bought the “celebrate the holiday” placemat? I enjoy your posts and crafts!!!

    Reply
  9. Katie @ Upcycled Treasures says

    December 5, 2013 at 9:07 PM

    You are so clever! I just made these last week, and using the same placemats too 🙂 I wish I would have seen this post a year ago because I am loving how easy it is to make pillows out of placemats! 🙂

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. White Winter Mantel - The Frugal Homemaker | The Frugal Homemaker says:
    January 11, 2013 at 8:01 AM

    […] the same things for winter.  The white yard sale stool stayed along with my DIY sweater pillow and DIY placemat pillow to create this cozy little […]

    Reply

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Hi!  My name is Christina . . .

I love doing simple, frugal things to make our house feel like HOME! Come learn along with me how to have a beautiful home on a budget.

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