Pirate Floor Pillows

It’s the final installment in this week’s Pirate bedroom series!  I found this tutorial for Land of Nod inspired floor pillows about this time two years ago.  I quickly got my hands on some more Out to Sea fabric because I thought this type of pillow would be great for my little guys.

I made one right away and it’s gotten quite a bit of use.  Mostly it’s used as a giant door stop for Luke’s closet door, but occasionally someone sits on it or uses it as a stool.  The pillows are really easy to make.  You cut two circles for the top and bottom, a long rectangle for the sides, and a small rectangle for the handle.  Piping is applied to the two circles and to the handle, which is a great way to add a pop of color (or a pop of white in my case!)  Since my fabric was quilting cotton I applied a heavy weight interfacing to all the pieces to give it a bit more heft.

My only deviation from the tutorial where I decided to leave the opening for turning the pillow right side out after assembly.  The tutorial has you leave the opening on one of the seams joining the circular top (or bottom) to the side piece.  I had to piece my side strip together since my fabric was only 44″ wide and I left an opening where I pieced the side together.  It seemed easier to me to only have to slip stitch through two layers of fabric instead of through the fabric and the piping.

Did any of you take part in #bpSewvember on Instagram?  There was a different sewing theme for each day of the month and one of the days the theme was UFO or unfinished object.  I immediately thought of my second floor pillow that I’d cut out but never completed.  I thought that I hadn’t ever finished it because I ran out of piping and I knew I had gotten more white piping recently.  I decided to get cracking on that pillow and realized halfway through that what I’d been missing was the heavy weight interfacing.  I did have some fusible fleece so I ended up using that on the sides of the second pillow instead.  The sides of that pillow (above) stand up a little straighter than the first one.

I stuffed the first pillow with bean bag beans, but after about a year they got pretty smooshed down and the pillow was looking flat and sad.  I started saving fabric scraps and re-filled it with a combo of poly-fill and fabric scraps.  I stuffed the second one with bean bag beans and fabric scraps.  It’s a great way to put to use those pieces of fabric that would normally go in the trash.

I have plans to make some valances for the windows and do two of Sarah Jane’s Out to Sea embroideries to hang on the wall.  I have some Christmas gifts that have to be made in the next couple of weeks so those projects probably won’t get started until January.  It’s fun to see the room starting to come together and it will be really great when it’s all finished!

~Teri