Ikea Dishtowels Turned Pillows

After seeing some wonderful front porch makeovers, I was super motivated to spruce up mine.  It wasn't really on my list of things to do (all of the exterior & landscaping projects are lower on the list), so I didn't want to spend a ton of money.

Awhile ago, I had bought a set of two Ikea "Iris" dish towels.  I bought them because I loved the aqua color (although, I'm loving the coral/orangey one in the picture below also).

Source

I decided these would make good pillows for the chairs on the front porch.  And since they would be outside, I wanted them to be easily removable so I could wash them. 

I washed the towels first.  But, I was lazy and didn't even bother to iron them.

Since they were already hemmed around the edges, it made my job way easy.  All I did was pin the right sides together, overlapping the ends so I could make it into an envelope pillow case.  The only thing I needed to do was sew up the two sides.  Easy!  (oh, and I cut the tags off).

(At the last minute, I changed how I pinned it.  The little loop you can see there, gave me an idea.  So,  I actually folded the side with the loop first so when it was all pinned together, you couldn't see the loop.)

Since I needed a pillow insert to use inside my new envelope pillow case, I used this tutorial from The 36th Avenue on how to make multiple pillows from a king size pillow.  Brilliant really!  Since this was a custom pillow case (not sure if I would have been able to find the right size in a store) AND I didn't want to spend any money AND I already had a couple of extra king size pillows, this was perfect.

Then I turned the pillow case right-side out and inserted the pillow.  The little loop on the dishtowel gave me the idea to sew a button to the pillow case, so I could hook the loop to the button to help keep it closed (which was a good thing because one of the pillows I made was a bit too fluffy for the pillow case).

I think the button adds a nice little touch to them, after all.  :)

The pillows fit perfectly on the chairs.  

Just for the record, I'm not done with my front porch makeover, but right now my p.a.d.d. (project a.d.d.) has moved on to other things, so not sure when it will be done.  I won't be doing anything too extravagant - maybe just add some pots of flowers and/or plants and maybe a little "welcome" sign, but that's about it.  So far, these pillows have added a bit of color & have made it a bit more comfortable to sit out there while I enjoy reading in the cool summer evenings.

Originally posted by Adventures in DIY

FEATURED AT:

House On The Way's Twirl & Take A Bow

Sew Sweet Vintage made her own pumpkin pillows with Ikea dishtowels too!  So cute!

LINKED UP TO:

Call Me PMC's Marvelous Mondays

Creatively Living's Monday Funday

Home Stories A to Z's Tutorials & Tips

Rain On A Tin Roof's & Dimples And Pigtales' & Better With Age's Give Me The Goods

Love Grows Wild's Time To Sparkle

A Bowl Full Of Lemons' One Project At A Time

House On The Way's Twirl & Take A Bow

Be Betsy's Brag About It

The DIY Dreamer's From Dream To Reality

Lil Luna's Link Party

Smart School House's & The NY Melrose Family's Whimsy Wednesdays

Homework's Inspiration Board

Sew Woodsy's  & Poofy Cheeks' & While They Snooze's Life Inspired

The 36th Avenue's Best DIY Projects

Live Laugh Rowe's Live Laugh Linky

House Of Hepworths' Hookin' Up With HOH

The Life Of Jennifer Dawn's A Little Birdie Told Me

Organized 31's Inspire Us Thursdays

Liz Marie Blog's & Love Of Family And Home's Inspire Me Please

Happy Go Lucky's & One Artsy Mama's Shine On Fridays

Tatertots & Jello's Weekend Wrap Up

Dakota Creek Chic's Weekend Beautiful

It's Overflowing's Share Your Creativity

Too Much Time's Get Schooled Saturdays

Suburbs Mama's Sunday Linky