DIY Pillows/Blanket For Your Rental Bed

By Gretchen Kernbach on May 15, 2016

This article is brought to you by CORT Furniture Rental. We take the hassle out of furnishing your new place so you can do more important things like read this article. Learn more about why furniture rental is the best way to get a great looking apartment.

You walk into your new room for the year. And there it is: bare, dark, ugly and uninviting. That thing you are looking at … is your bed.

One of the best parts about coming into a new environment is decorating it to match your tastes. This not only includes hanging pictures on your wall, but also what you choose to put on your bed. There are numerous websites out there to guide you in picking the right pattern and color scheme for your bedding, but if you want to be really unique, you can do it yourself.

By that I mean, hands-on, manual work that involves sewing, painting, stitching, and anything else of the sort. It may sound like a lot of time and work, but the final project is truly one-of-a-kind. Let’s start with some pillow designs.

Knot Pillow

Image via pintrest.com

To make a knot pillow you will need 1/3 yard of knit fabric, pillow stuffing, an empty wrapping paper roll, a sewing machine, needle, thread and a dowel rod. Make sure the knit fabric can stretch well.

The first thing to do is cut the fabric and fold it over (doing so twice to create two pillows to intertwine). Pin it together to ensure the sides match up. Next, sew the edge with a .5 inch allowance on the seams and turn the fabric inside out over the empty wrapping paper roll. Following that, sew the top of the fabric closed and start stuffing it using the dowel rod.

Image via littleinspiration.com

Here is a list of steps to guide you in creating a Turk’s Head Knot.

http://littleinspiration.com

According to littleinspiration.com, “Once you are into step 8, pull the remaining ends and make it tighter to form a ball. Push the ends inside and sew them against the inside.”

Visit this link for more pictures about how to create your own knot pillow.

Funfetti Cake Slice Pillow

To create this tasty-looking cushion, you will need pink cotton or felt, white felt, acrylic paint, poly-fil stuffing, fabric glue, pink thread, a paper template (for sprinkles), a small paintbrush, scissors, and a ruler.

According to awwsam.com the first two steps are as follows.

“Cut out two rectangles out of your pink fabric that are 16 inches x 12 inches, two triangles that are 16 inches x 16 inches x 12 inches, and a square that’s 12 inch x 12 inches. With a .5 inch seam allowance, glue or sew the seams together. Start by gluing the rectangles to the two triangles and then closing the shape off with the square. Make sure to leave a small opening so you can turn it right-side out and put the stuffing in.”

Image via awwsam.com

After you have either finished sewing or the glue is dry, you can start stuffing the pillow. Make sure to completely fill it up, and sew or glue the opening closed. Now is the time to decorate.

Cut two 25 inch x 4 inch pieces of white felt strips and use the acrylic paint to create the sprinkles. Glue them onto the pillow once the paint has dried.

According to awwsam.com, the fifth step states, “For the frosting on top, cut out four circles that are 6″ in diameter. Bunch them up at the top, put a little bit of stuffing inside, and tie them closed with a string or sewing thread. Glue them to the top of the pillow.”

Image via awwsam.com

Shirt Pillow

To create this, you will need a clean, ironed button-down shirt, an old pillow, a sewing machine or handheld stitcher, scissors, and pins. Besides an old pillow, you could also purchase a pillow insert. The first step is cutting off the sleeves.

The next step, according to ducklingsinarow.com, is as follows.

“Turn your shirt inside out and place your pillow form/insert inside your shirt. Finagle the pillow until you have it in the position you want. If you’ll be using the pockets, like I did, be sure they are positioned in a place that makes you happy on the pillow … Pull together the bottoms of the shirt tight and pin into place beginning at the center (where the buttons are) and working your way out.”

Image via ducklingsinarow.com

Excess fabric needs to be trimmed, but leave an inch margin. Now you can start sewing. Run the sticher as close as possible to pins, removing them as you go, and secure the seam once you reach the end. Repeat the steps involving the pins and stitching on each side of the shirt. Notice you will not be including the collar on this pillow.

Once everything is all sewn together, unbutton the shirt and turn it right-side out. Then you can put it back around the pillow and button it back up.

Image via ducklingsinarow.com

Another at-home touch you can add to your bare bed is a DIY blanket.

T-Shirt Quilt

In order to create this quilt, you will need 30 t-shirts, 2.5 yards of fleece, 8 yards extra wide single fold bias tape, 10-yard apparel interface material, iron and ironing board, matching thread, scissors, and pins. The first step is to organize the blanket in an order of your choosing. Line them up in a 5 x 6 fashion and take a picture to refer back to.

Use clear fiberglass as a guide for cutting out your shirts into their correct quilt-square size. Once all your shirts are cut out, lay each of them on the ironing board and iron on the interfacing. Now it is time to sew.

According to monicapare.wordpress.com:

“Sew the horizontal rows of the squares together. Here is where your pins come in handy. a.) Take your first two squares in the top row and lay them side by side. b.) Flip the square on the right on top of the square on the left, so that the “right” sides of both shirts are touching each other. c.) Pin along the right side of the square, going through both layers of fabric.  Open up the fabric to double check that each shirt is where it should be (i.e. not upside down and pinned together on the correct side). d.) Sew along these pins. I used the presser foot of the machine as my guide, so it was about an 1/8 inch seam.”

Remember to remove the pins as you sew along the edges. Repeat this process to connect all five squares in your first row. Do this same step for each row until you have all six done, and proceed to sew each row together. Be sure to place the second row on top of the first row, and so on.

Now you can attach the fleece to your shirts. Pin down the middle two vertical columns to keep both pieces of fabric in place. The goal is to keep all the fabric as smooth and flat as possible while sewing them together. Once you have finished the vertical columns, do the same with the horizontal rows, starting with the centermost one.

To finish off the quilt, monicapare.wordpress.com states the following.

“Cut off the excess fleece around the outside so that all the edges are flush. Again, pin everything beforehand so both layers stay nice and flat … Keeping the pins around the entire outside edges, sew a 1/8 inch seam around the entire quilt … Take your bias tape and fold it equally around the outside edges, with half of it on the bottom and half on the top so it covers up all the ragged t-shirt and fleece edges.”

Finally, sew the bias tape onto your work of art. Try to sew on the inside edge of the tape to create a round edge on your quilt. And you are finished. For more details, visit this link.

Image via monicapare.wordpress.com

Looking for an easy way to furnish your off-campus apartment? Renting furniture from CORT saves you time and money. See how easy it is to get great looking furniture without breaking the bank.

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