How To Make Your Own Pillows from DISH TOWELS {Part 1}

Last Updated on March 3, 2022

It's no secret that I LOVE Ikea. There are so many budget-friendly QUALITY items at Ikea that it is a go-to source for us. Therefore, it should be no surprise that I went to Ikea to buy a few things for the girls' new “big girl” room {check out the full reveal HERE}. I purchased their curtain, curtain rod, picture frame ledges and comforters at Ikea. Our closest Ikea is about 1 1/2 hours away, so I don't there often and do some general growing {time permitting} whenever I visit.

During my visit to make purchases for the girls' room, I found myself in the kitchen/cooking section. If your asking yourself how that could possibly happen, you obviously have never been to an Ikea :)  In any event, I fell in LOVE with these bold, striped dish towels, which were $2.99 each.

Photo Source: Ikea

I WANTED them, but I did not need them for our kitchen. That's when I realized that the colors were perfect for the girls' big girl room. Yay! Ummm, but I still needed something to DO with them. Seconds later, in another inspired moment {if I do say so myself}, I realized I could make throw pillows with them, so I purchased four FOR LESS THAN $12.00. I also grabbed two Ikea feather pillow inserts while I was there. They are AMAZING quality for the money–$6.00 each. So, for around $24.00 I had the makings for two custom throw pillows. Read on for a full tutorial on how to make throw pillows from dish towels!

Materials Needed for 1 pillow:

• Two dish towels {one for the front and one for the back–you can use the same towels or mix them up!}
• A pillow insert that is smaller than the dimensions of your dish towels
• Scissors
• Push pins
• A basic sewing machine {I got mine several years ago for less than $100 on Overstock.com}

Now, I will let you in on a shameful secret. I HATE sewing. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. There, I said it. Judge me all you want. Yes, I am crafty. Yes, I am creative. No, I do not like my sewing machine. But, I do have one because there are many, many times that sewing things saves me a ton of money. It's a necessary evil, but I don't enjoy it. Sorry.

Needless to say, I take as many shortcuts as I can when sewing. In other words, I do not like to measure, etc. So, here is the simple method I followed to make these pillows:

1) First, I laid out the dishtowels and removed the tags and hanging tabs with scissors.

2) Lay the dish towels on top of each other with the “good sides” facing each other. This is important because you will basically be sewing the pillow cover inside out, so you must be sure that you are sewing on the “bad sides.”

3) Lay your pillow insert on top of the dish towels {with the towels still laying on top of each other as described above}. In my case, my pillow insert was 16 x 24 inches and my dish towels were 20 x 28 inches. I positioned my pillows on top of the dish towels and lined the pillow up about 1 inch {this will allow for the bulk of the pillow insert} from the top edge and the left side edge of the towels. I did this so that I could use two of the finished edges on the dishtowels as sewing guides. Clever, huh? To create your sewing guide for the remaining seam that you will sew, you simply need to place pins in the dish towels about 1 inch from the edge of your pillow insert. As I said, I don't measure or mark when I sew, so “about an inch” is as specific as I can get. Place as many pins as you think you need to, bearing in mind that this will be your guide for sewing a straight line. I used only a couple, but if you think you want more guidance while you sew, place more.

4) Now you are ready to sew! You will sew along the “sewing guides” that are formed either by the finished edges of the dish towels or with your pins. If you can drive and form a straight line, I promise you can sew these pillows. IMPORTANT–only sew three sides. You need to leave one side open so you can stuff the pillow inside! I opted to leave one of the short sides open to leave myself less hand stitching {you will think this is even funnier when you read part 2 of this post later this week}.

5) Now you will need to cut off any excess fabric from around the perimeter of your stitched seams, leaving about 1/4 inch of fabric outside of each seam. In my case, since I used the finished edges of the towels as the outer perimeter for two edges of my pillow, I only had to trim excess fabric off of the third seam that I sewed where there was about 4 inches of extra fabric. You will also want to trim excess fabric from the fourth edge of the pillow insert {that has NOT been sewn yet} leaving at least 1 inch of extra fabric, which you will have to close up after you put the pillow insert in.

6) Alright folks, now turn your pillow cover right side out and admire it for a moment before stuffing your pillow insert in it. Then, get to stuffing!

This is what your project will look like at this stage. Up to this point, I spent no more than 30 minutes to make both pillows.

FRIENDS, I AM NOT GOING TO LIE TO YOU. I got stumped at this stage because I have never really learned how to sew a blind stitch {i.e., a stitch that you can't see, which is what you want for a finished pillow edge}. I am even going to confess to you that at this stage in the project I had an EPIC FAIL, which I have since corrected. I hope you'll come back in a couple of days to learn all about how to finish your pillow {and also, how not to do it}. Trust me folks, the final step really does deserve it's own post. It's that funny and more importantly, informative.

What do you think of the fact that you can make custom throw pillows with dish towels?! There are SO many dish towels and dish towels with fabulous fabrics and they are thick and durable. The possibilities are endless. And this is such a thrifty project. Two custom pillows with feather inserts for $24.00?! If you stuffed the pillows yourself, you could do it for even less! Who's going to give this a try?

GOOD NEWS…PART 2 HAS BEEN POSTED. CLICK HERE FOR THE FINAL STEP IN THIS PILLOW TUTORIAL!

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