Yummy Cashmere Pillows

Pillows from old sweaters made the blog rounds a while ago, and they seemed so cozy they've stayed on my mind. I found the softest cashmere sweater at the Salvation Army for $3; it had some small holes so it was begging to be repurposed. Since I wanted two, I decided to make the back of the pillow from fabric in my stash. Here's how.

Supplies:
1 14" pillow form
1 large sweater
2 square of coordinating fabric, 14" (seam allowance included)*
1 rectangle of coordinating fabric, 14" x 7"
2 1" buttons

*a tip from House on Hill Road: pillow cases look better if they are slightly smaller than their pillow forms.

Placing one 14" square on your sweater as a rough guide, cut a square out of your sweater larger than 14".


To keep the sweater from warping, sew the sweater to one square of fabric, then cut to size. You can keep this step if your sweater is fairly sturdy.

Fold over hem at the top of the other fabric square and sew down. Cut triangles out of the corner of the rectangle, 3" from the corners, and discard. Hem edges.


Evenly from the edges, add two buttonholes to the corners of the formerly rectangular piece. Pin this piece on top of the hemmed square so that it forms a new 14" square.


Sew the buttonhole side to the sweater side, right sides together, turn right side out, add buttons, and presto, you have a ridiculously cheap cashmere pillow. It's hard to capture how delightfully cozy and soft these pillows are... just look at this pile.



Mmmm... cashmere.

What a Mug

I ordered some photo mugs from an online photo site; they didn't come out very well. So I made my own.



Using my light tracer, possible the most useful tool in my craft arsenal, I turned Charlie's portrait into line art. Then I taped the line art inside the glass mug and traced it with Vitrea 160, a dish washer resistant glass paint.

I added a message to the other side in the same way, using a print out of Apple Chancery.



I made one for each of my parents, who are now grandparents. Which is a concept they are surprisingly comfortable with; it still blows my mind (oh my God, I'm a parent).

Color me flattered

Check out what showed up on Sew and So, a blog I happen to follow. It's a Tardis Tissue box cozy! My original post is easily my most popular post ever, and I'm so excited to see someone pick it up and run with it.

I've been thinking about making a new one myself, since the original was sent off to the UK for a craft swap, and it would be nice to put together a better tutorial. Someday when I have time.