Ruched Pillow

What can you do with some old clothes? Absolutely anything.

After the garage sale last month, we had bags of clothing to give away. I went through every bag and pulled some clothes purely because of the fabric.

Here's my sister's dress. After trying it on and seeing that it just wasn't all that flattering on me,

I decided that I would turn it into a pillow for my sister because I loved the eyelet fabric. It's vintage looking and shabby chic which is exactly my sister.

So after hearing for the upteenth time that she wanted a ruched comforter set like this one sold at West Elm, I decided that I would use her future bedding set as my inspiration.

I removed the bodice from the dress and slipped the skirt part of the dress over a pre-made pillow. I hand basted one side of the pillow.

Then, I pulled the thread on one end.

This caused the fabric to gather. I spaced out the gathered fabric evenly across the pillow.

Once it was gathered, I sewed the opening of the pillow together, right sides together.

Once that was done, I flipped the fabric around on the pillow and sewed the other end to a zipper. Since, her colors are white, gray, and teal, I decided to keep the pillow a little fun with a teal zipper instead of white. I love it!

Next, I basted the front of the pillow four times. This will keep the ruching even. I first basted it with two columns, but decided I liked the double thickness effect, adding another column beside the first two about 2 cms apart.

Voila! A dress turned into a pillow.



Do you like my house warming gift?

She loved it, but then she asked me to make her another one.

Sorry, no dress left for another pillow. ;)