A Good Source For Pillow Covers

Shhhhhhhh, don't tell anybody...

...even though I can diy my own pillow covers 
aka sew, 

I don't always do it. 
Especially when I find a source that has really pretty pillow covers that I love for $13.99.  I could probably make pillow covers for about $6-$10, depending on the fabric, but for me, the extra cost is worth my time and trouble because even though 

I KNOW how to sew,

 I don't LIKE to sew. 

I always end up sewing something the wrong way and end up ripping at least one seam out. 

Anybody feel the same way?

I found the pillow covers online over at Very Jane (jane.com~ sorry no link)  and ordered them for our youngest daughter's room. But, silly me, she wants to change her colors to indigo, not this pretty shade of blue. I realized they were the wrong color for her room when they arrived, but thought they'd look good on our grey sofa. 

Problem is, I only ordered two and our daughter isn't really happy with all of the "mismatched" pillows in our Family Room. 

So, I ordered 2 more and now she's happy that we have "matched" pillows. 

Couldn't resist picking up this little heart shaped ivy topiary at Trader Joe's yesterday. 

It looks perfect next to the sofa  with my new pillow covers. 

The ikat fabric on one of the pillows has a great texture to it. 

Regarding Very Jane, even though this isn't a sponsored post and I'm not an affiliate, I still wanted to spread the word. They offer daily deals for really good prices. 

If you miss the deal, you're out of luck. 

They do offer pillow covers quite often though, but they may or may not be the same style. 

In the past, I've purchased 20 x 20 down pillow inserts from Ikea for $6.99. Unfortunately, they are only available on the West Coast. Wish I had purchased a dozen more for that price!

Would love to know if you have an inexpensive source for down pillow inserts! Otherwise, my big suitcase is going to be packed full of them when we visit SoCal in July. 

Pam

joining: 

Savvy Southern Style

My Haul From Ikea

Last Tuesday my daughter and I, her boyfriend and his mom, went to Ikea to get a few things. We spent much of the day browsing and shopping. This was our guests first visit to Ikea. 

All of you who've been there know exactly how they felt seeing all the choices Ikea has to offer. They were able to find a couple of bookcases, a desk and a whole bunch of other little items. My haul looked like this:

Ikea has so many inexpensive gadgets. I picked up a couple of these laptop supports for $3.99 each. Mr. Fanatic's laptop gets really hot on his lap and this solves the problem.

 

I picked up a couple of white bath sheets. Don't know about you, but when I get out of the shower, I definitely don't want a little towel, especially in the winter. Ikea towels have this ingenious loop on one side just for hanging them up on a hook. No more finding towels on the floor because they slipped off the hook.

Went to Ikea about a month ago and picked up some other white curtains for my Master Bedroom, but they were too sheer. Found these tab topped Lenda curtains instead and love them a whole lot more. This photo was taken a few days ago before Mr. Fanatic raised up the curtain rod closer to the ceiling.

Here's a before shot of our Master....

Now, while I can't show you the whole room, I can show you how the 20" Fjadrar inner pillows look with some pillow covers I purchased awhile back. Ikea has the most unpronounceable names for their products. I bet the Swedes don't think so! 

The inner pillows are down filled and were only $6.99 each. I  also bought a 24" square down filled pillow for my daughter.

I purchased a few more items and will show you where I put them another time. Will also have to take some photos of the whole Master Bedroom, as well.

If you've been to Ikea, what was your favorite find and what department do you like best?

Pam

p.s. I have not been compensated in any way by Ikea.

Lattice Stenciled Pillow

 Last month while creating the  jewelry organizer for our daughter, I knew  I had 

to make  something else with the beautiful trellis stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils. There was leftover paint and burlap fabric so I stenciled an extra piece and set it on my work table to use at a later date.

Here's the jewelry organizer in case you missed it.

On a side note, I found a taller little "dress form" at HomeGoods and couldn't resist bringing it home for her.

 Anyway...

Our daughter had this cute pillow that I embellished with some fabric flowers, but I though it would be fun to change up the pillow cover.

Yesterday, I finally had a little time to sew the pillow while my daughter was at work. Her new pillow was waiting for her in her room when she arrived home.

She must have really liked it because she wrote this on her facebook status: "I love coming home to new stuff in my room :) #LoveYouMom http://instagr.am/p/NPhUYRkplN/"

Awww.

Her room has evolved over the last few years...It looked like this after we built the bookcases.

Later on, a little vintage table was added after painting it the same color as the back of the bookcases. The little vintage table was my grandmother's.

I really wish I could show you how the whole room looks today, but you'll have to wait until she tidies it up....

Uh, We might be waiting quite awhile.

How do you get your kids to keep their rooms neat? Do you pick it up or do you leave it to them?

Would love to know where I went wrong!

Pam

At The Picket Fence for Inspiration Friday

Pretty Little Pillows

Our oldest daughter had a birthday a few days ago.

She turned 20.

My how time flies.

She moved to SoCal last year in May and has been there over a year now. 

You might recall I went to visit her this past March to help her get settled in her apartment.

 Here's what we used for design inspiration.

A lot was accomplished during my trip to  SoCal. We bought all the basics she needed, but didn't have time to add any color. She still needed some curtains and the little light blue pillow inserts from Ikea needed pillow covers(among other things), so I thought I'd make her the covers and send them for her birthday.

I really wanted to find some faux fur in turquoise for the pillow covers, but couldn't find any at the fabric stores locally. There was some faux fur online, but I would have had to buy a minimum of 1 yard at $20 a yard plus shipping. The little pillow inserts are only 12 1/2", so I only needed less than 1/2 a yard for both pillow covers.

I made one last visit to Hancock Fabrics in hopes of finding something that would work for a pillow cover.

As luck would have it, they had some embellished turquoise taffeta in the bridal section. 

YAY!!!

The pillow covers are made with a zipper...I was also lucky enough to find a matching turquoise zipper!

For the photo op, the pillow covers are stuffed with plastic grocery bags. 

I  wrapped the pillow covers up with some jute twine and added a gift tag.

Here's a photo of the birthday girl ~ All grown up.

We miss her terribly.

Now I need to get working on the rest of the things  and send Mr. Fanatic out to SoCal to work on her to do list.

Pam 

joining:

At The Picket Fence for Inspiration Friday

DIY: Sewing A Pillow Cover Is So Easy

Pillow covers are so easy to make whether you sew them or use a no sew product. If you have several pairs of them, they are easy to change  out seasonally and  take up very little space compared to having several sets of pillows.  Plus, if you make them yourselves, pillow covers are a lot cheaper to make than going out and buying a bunch of new pillows.

The other night Mr. Fanatic had to do some paperwork in the office and asked me to join him, so I thought I'd whip up a pillow cover with some fabric I found the last time I was at Mary Jo's.

Here it is:

 I just took one of the down pillows I already had, took off the cover and slipped on the cover once it was made. I think it took me all of 30 minutes to cut out the fabric and sew the pillow cover.

I thought the newly covered pillow would look great on the gray sofa.

Then I tried it on one of the leather chairs.

The gray sofa pillows were on the leather chairs, but I think the green fabric looks so much better.

Since we have 2 leather chairs, it looks like I'm going to have to make a trip to Mary Jo's and get some fabric to make another pillow cover for the second chair.

It's been cold here the past couple of days and the sun hardly shined at all last week and I would love to just skip over the next two months and go straight to Spring! 

How about you?

Hope you did something fun weekend!

Pam