Beautiful Christmas Pillows ~ From a Re-Purposed Skirt!

So I was cleaning out my closet recently, and came across this skirt that I've never worn! It was given to me in a bag of used clothing a few years back. I was trying things on, making piles of 'give away', 'too small', 'too large'... (Ok, so this last pile wasn't very large. Enough said.)

ANYWAY, back to the important stuff... I found this skirt and I actually tried it on before I realized it had some tan paint all over it, in places not seen from the front view. I loved the ribbon embellishments and not seen in the photo are the sequins and beads that are decorating it, also. I immediately realized I would never be able to wear it with the paint on it, but I could turn it into a Christmas pillow!! I was so excited! I could see it in my mind already. I ran the idea past my youngest daughter. She thought it was a great idea, only she suggested I make two smaller pillows instead of one larger pillow. Even better! So off to my craft room I went!

I started by trying to steam out the deep wrinkles. It didn't work as well as I wanted it to, but I figured if I stuffed it full enough it may not even matter. So now it was time to start cutting.

I cut the upper part of the skirt off, which included the waistband and the pleats. I also salvaged the zipper and the inner lining. (To use later...on another project, hopefully!)

I cut the front section in half up the middle, cutting the back of the skirt at the same time. I measured the two sections (right and left) and trimmed them up to be as close to the same size as possible.

Then I turned them wrong-side out, and started sewing. I started with the bottom, where the original skirt hem had been. Then up the left side, then the right side. Then I sewed along the top about 1/3 of the way. Then I sewed from the other side along the top edge about 1/3 of the way, leaving about a 1/3 opening in the middle for turning and stuffing. (The edge that's facing the snowman mug is where I left an opening.)

I had this bed/chair thing I was given from my Dad. It was only used a few times, but since I also had no use for it... I decided to make use of the insides! (I also plan to save the outside tan corduroy for another project.)

So I turned the pillow pieces right-side out, pulling them through the opening I had left earlier. I used a chop-stick that I inserted through the opening and helped to shape the corners before I started to stuff.

I then started on the bed/chair. I cut a slit along a seam to get out the stuffing and try not to ruin the large pieces of corduroy.

I just started pulling clumps of stuffing out and put them inside one of the pillow pieces, stuffing until quite full.

I then hand-stitched along the small 1/3 opening I had left earlier and... ta-da! The finished pillows!

Beautiful! All ready for Christmas and they didn't cost me a cent!