Old Grain Sack Pillow

Good Morning and happy Saturday to you!

I wanted to show you a fun little project I did yesterday. As you probably know, I absolutely adore old French grain sacks but my gosh, they're pricey! I drool over those beautiful photos in the magazines where they're all stacked together in a pretty wire basket or sewn into gorgeous pillows!! So I thought...hmmmm...there's got to be a way that I can have one of those. I thought and I thought and this is what I came up with. I couldn't wait to share the idea with those of you who may love them too but can't stand the idea of spending so much money on them. I am so happy with the way it turned out.

This project is for a pillow and you will need:

unbleached cotton fabric

a red fabric marker pen

clear packing tape

scissors for cutting fabric or a rotary cutter and cutting mat

pillow stuffing of your choosing

sewing machine or a needle and thread if you prefer to hand sew it

a needle and thread to close the opening left for stuffing your pillow

The first thing that I did was buy a yard of unbleached cotton fabric. You can find this at Walmart for about $3.50 a yard. I then washed and dried the fabric and ironed out the wrinkles (or you can leave them in - it adds character!)
Then, you want to cut the fabric to the size you want your pillow to be. I used a cutting mat with a rotary cutter but good ole' fabric scissors will work just fine. After cutting, I left the fabric on the cutting mat so that when I painted the stripe on the fabric, I had a surface to work on and it will protect your table from the marker possibly bleeding through.

Now, it's time to get out your tape and your fabric marker. I used clear packing tape so that I could easily see through it to where my stripes were. Tape off your stripes and press the tape down firmly to the fabric so the marker doesn't bleed under the tape. Now you just draw your stripe with your fabric marker. You may need to go over it a couple of times until your desired color is reached. Peel away the tape and voila! You have your first stripe. I did my center stripe first and then worked out. You can do whatever is easier for you - that's just what worked better for me. Now go ahead and repeat the same steps for making any additional stripes that you want. I made my center stripe 1/4 inch wide and the outer two are an 1/8 of an inch wide. The stripes are spaced an 1/8 inch apart.

After you have completed your stripes and peeled away all of the tape, this is what you have.Not too bad, huh??
When you have finished your stripes on one side, go ahead and repeat all of the steps for the other side

Okay, this is what you will have when all of the striping is complete. I ironed the stripes to heat set them when I was finished. The pen I used didn't require it but I did it anyway just to be safe. Follow the directions on your pen.

Sew your pillow together remembering to leave an opening to stuff it. You can use Polyfil or whatever stuffing you desire. I have a featherbed that no one uses so I cut it open for the feathers and stuffed it with those. After you have finished stuffing your pillow, sew up the opening and you're done!!

And here is the finished product!!

Not too bad, I think it would pass as a pillow made out of an old grain sack - and for about $4.00, you can't beat it!!

Have fun!

xo,

Kathleen