If you follow along on Instagram with me you know I picked up some grain sacks for a great deal at the Alameda Flea Market when visiting my sister. I think I paid about $12 a piece. I knew I wanted to make some pillows out of them but I just wasn't exactly sure how I was going to accomplish it. The picture below is all the goodies I got from the flea market. You can see I bought three different grain sacks. I wasn't even sure if I could wash them so I didn't do anything with them for awhile. I finally decided to just try it (nothing to lose right?) and I washed them in my washer and dried them in the dryer and it worked great!
On to the pillow cover making. Let me start with the easiest option. These bags are super long and a little thin so my first thought was to get some king size pillows and see if it filled up the bags enough where I wouldn't have to sew them. Guess what? It worked for two of them!! All I did was add the pillows and tuck in the ends. Seriously it was that easy. I accomplished a long grain sack pillow for super cheap and with no sewing or altering at all.
Alright, now on to the more difficult option. This one involved a little hand sewing and cutting. I don't own a sewing machine so it was all by hand. A little time consuming but again I saved ALOT of money doing it this way instead of going to buy some already made.
The third bag I bought was wider then the other two so I wasn't able to use the above trick. I decided to take a risk and cut the bag in half (I forgot to take pictures of this). I took a euro pillow insert to see if they would fit and luckily it was just big enough to make two euro pillow cases. The first pillow case only needed some buttons sewed one one side so that I could close it and still take it off to wash it (the other side was already sewed shut because that was the bottom of the bag).
I picked up a bunch of buttons from Joanns and bought some needles and thread and went to town. I was ok with a slightly unfinished look because they are rustic grain sack pillows! I basically went from one end to the other and where each button is I cut a small slit on the other side to match up with the buttons. I may have to eventually go back and reinforce the holes with thread if they get too stretched out, but for now it works fine. One pillow down!
The next one was a little harder because both ends were open. I pinned the top with straight pins and went to work sewing. I followed the hem that was already there so that helped keep it pretty straight. The thread matched perfectly so I was able to hand sew the top and you can't even see where I sewed it. Thats a good thing because I am sure its not completely straight since it was hand done! On the bottom I did the same as above and added buttons to the bottom so that I am able to take the cover off and wash them if I need to.
Like I said before, I am by far not a seamstress or anything but I thought I would share what I did. Maybe it will motivate you to be braver and try something similar yourself! Sometimes it just takes some time and taking a chance. I am so glad I finally jumped in with both feet and tried this out because I love the pillows so much! They bring a ton of character and warmth to my space.
Well that is all for today my friends! I hope you are inspired by this post and I would love to see your own projects if you try this! Have a wonderful week and I so appreciate you stopping by today!