Pillows, Pillows, and Placemats?

A short time ago I was cruising through Blogland. This happens on a regular basis whenever I want to avoid doing any number of life's to-dos. I always find inspiration, and sometimes I find my sanity. Today I'm sharing this at Centsational Girl. This is one of my top 5 favorite blogs.

I hopped over to House of Hepworths - this woman will not disappoint. She is always working on something fabulous. On this particular day I was looking to do something; but the something couldn't require a lot of time or money. Allison blogged about turning placemats into pillows - brilliant!  How is it I never thought of it?!!! I've turned napkins into pillows and in all honesty I have about 10 that are waiting to be sewn. But placemats??? Could it really be that simple?  In a word YES! I think this may be one of my new addictions for a quickie project to get that "fix."

I popped into Cost Plus while running errands and found some really cute placemats for $2.99. I would have to dig in the remnants bin for a while to find such a deal.  So I purchased 5 and then off to Michael's for filler.

That night after my daughter was tucked in I sat on the couch with...you guessed it my glass of wine turned on my DVR and 30 minutes later I had 5 new super cute outdoor pillows!

A few pix of the process...

I used a seam ripper to open a hole just large enough for my hand to fit through.

Next I just took small handfuls of filler and stuffed it in, smoothing as I stuffed.  I used 1 bag for all 5 pillows.  Once they were stuffed, I just whipstitched it. If I were not so lazy, I could have used my sewing machine for a more professional repair...but like I said I was/am lazy.

Super cute outdoor pillows in 30 minutes. 

A few things to note;

1. You need 2 layer placemats

2. You may want to scotchguard if they will be outside

I will never look at a placemat the same way again!