Ah. Maybe. Maybe. The end is in sight! I feel better, but still am short on energy! Still… I could get up and do short periods of work before I’d sit back down and rest. I did finish the last of the presents for the grandsons…
Now, my mom made matching gifts for my kids for a few years, stuffed lambs, etc. … so when I saw these cute pillow beds on Pinterest, I thought… yeah, I can do that for my grandkids! The idea is to sew 4 pillowcases together side by side, insert pillows, then you can lay on the floor or have a pillow to lean against and something to lay on… giving you all sorts of options for comfy movie watching or play or whatever.
I didn’t like the idea of an open ended pillowcase (little boys will just pull pillows out just to pull pillows out). One example had velcro closing the ends. I know sewing velcro on is tricky because I’ve done it (and the stitching was Not So Pretty). Besides, little boys and velcro??? Yeah, it just makes pulling the pillows out noisier!
Then I saw the example of using a twin flat sheet and four pillows. Aha! Inspiration! Instead of having to close the end of a pillowcase, you just need to overlap the fabric, making a fancy sham, not just a plain pillowcase! Easy, right???
Sigh.
With me and sewing machines… nothing is easy.
I managed to score pillows and sheets at Kmart when I went to Cody last week… and filled my friend’s car up with 16 pillows!!!! Average pillows are 20″ x 26″… plenty of fabric in a twin flat sheet to wrap around. The overlap was 13″. I kept thinking this was going to be easy! The width did match the pillow at 26″, but I decided to make the seams 22.5″. That would give you plenty of room for adjusting your pillows without them flopping back flat. Let’s see some more pics and maybe you’ll see what I mean.
The fabric is folded with a 13″ overlap. You are creating a tube or tunnel. One sheet I had a heck of a time smoothing out and laying things out flat and even. That’s because I assumed the sheet was square. It wasn’t. That made it want to spin on me down the length of the tube. Finally I got it adjusted. DON’T ASSUME YOUR SHEETS ARE SQUARE.
Mark out lines 22.5″ apart and sew, creating the individual “cases” for your four pillows. Here’s the second illuminating event. I made two of these and they turned out perfectly. The other two flat sheets, same brand, same style, were 3″ LONGER than the first ones I made. I kid you not. TWIN FLAT SHEETS ARE NOT NECESSARILY THE SAME LENGTH.
I was ready to pull my hair out, but instead, I just drew my line and sewed it up!
Insert pillows.
Only I can get so puzzled up and frustrated over sewing 5 straight lines!!! I may be wrong on leaving so much room between the pillows with my 22.5″ measurement, but they seem to hold any position quite easily.
Further thoughts: These could use sewn on straps to tie them together for easy storage in a closet, or carrying up and downstairs… (you could cut some fabric off one end to do this with or use other fabric) Since I’m giving these to 2 and 3 year olds, I dropped that idea. Tie straps and little kids didn’t seem like a good idea. I even thought of old belts to hold them together, but giving 4 boys belts to swing around seemed like a WORSE idea. The parents will have to figure out what to do!
I also thought about putting their names or initials on with a bleach pen… but then I may let the boys do it themselves this summer OUTSIDE. Or not! Great idea for an older kid though. Stamping or bleaching or tie dyeing… a lot of ways to make this fun.
These sheets come in little matching sacks (why? I don’t know, it’s not like you could ever fold them back up and store them that way!). Those little sacks may get decorated up and personalized for all those little presents they’ll have… if I get time!
I like them. The sheet is easy to take off and wash, too… perfect for my little perfect grandsons!
Find me here!
These are really clever and the boys will probably use them for years. A couple of pieces of elastic with the ends sewn together would work well for when they need to be “put away.” It would be like giant rubber bands, and who knows what little boys would think of to do with giant rubber bands if they got hold of them!
Those are cool!
These are really cool and you did a good job making them, in spite of being under the weather. Now let’s hope the kids never have a pillow fight or it could be colossal!!! 🙂
Those are cool! Bet the kids love ’em.
Love these! Great idea.
One day those “babies” will look back and smile and say, “What a special Grandma we have”. Your wonderful!!
What wonderful gifts Carol. The Grandkids will have a great time. I often get half way through a project and wish I had not started. I usually have a plan for my quilts, BUT as I work along other ideas pop into my head. Maybe this panel would be better here, or there, or maybe leave it out!!!. A few posts back you wondered where our time goes……. I know exactly where. For us ‘creative’ people so much creativity goes on practically or in our heads as we do other stuff with the resulted sigh ‘where has the time gone’ . We need creativity in our world so keep on creating. Dust will carry on visiting no matter how much we clean. Glad your on the mend.