Make an inexpensive Christmas pillow from a placemat

I have had several people comment on my cute red plaid flannel pillows on my Christmas front porch and even though this isn’t a new idea I thought I would share it anyways.  Sometimes we just need a fresh reminder of something that could work in a certain area or within a budget in our house to get a project started or decorating project finished. 

I knew when I was planning my Christmas front porch that I wanted 4 matching red pillows for my 4 yard sale find black rocking chairs.  You know I have a love affair with pillows but the prices… yeah not a fan at all.  Even if I could find a pillow on the cheap side for $10 or less you are talking $40 for 4 pillows – that just doesn’t fit in my frugal home decorating budget.  I had browsed Amazon and found some cute red and white striped pillow covers (affiliate link) but they come from China so you have to have several weeks for them to arrive – I have some on order and plan to use them for the summer.  And I checked Hobby Lobby but they don’t carry 4 of the same pillow covers at the same time – so once again I would have to buy 1-2 at a time and wait for them to stock more.

So I turned to my tried and true way to make cute pillows for cheap!

Yep, my cute red plaid pillows are placemats!  To make pillows from placemats – you will need 2 layer placemats and fiberfill.  I always rub the placemat in between my fingers to make sure there are 2 layers and they will come apart. 

These placemats came from Kohls and are a soft flannel with an embroidered snowflake on them – so adorable!  They were $7.99 original price, on sale for 1/2 off and I had a 30% off coupon so I paid less $12 for all 4 making my pillows less $3 each. 

Use a seam ripper, open up some of the seam on the bottom of the pillow, and stuff with fiberfill.  Then just use a needle and thread (or sewing machine if you want) and sew the opening back up again. 

I made 4 pillows in less than 20 minutes – it honestly doesn’t take long at all.   You can find placemats in all shapes and sizes too – of course the most common are rectangle which actually worked great for my rocking chairs.  But they have square and round placemats too which could make cute pillows. 

Cute holiday placemats are a great thing to look for at the after-Christmas sales.  There is always 1-2 random placemats that get let behind that they can’t sell – so pick them up and turn them into cute pillows!