Upcycled Linen Decorator Pillows

A while back at the local thrift shop I found a dress that was destined for parts unknown. The dress wasn't my style but it was made of linen and had wonderful machine embroidery on it. I snatched up the dress thinking there was plenty of material in it to make something....but not sure what.
My recent shoulder surgery gave me a few ideas.....and a little bit of time to work on them. I took a good look at the dress and decided on pillows. At first I thought big square pillows would be good (and easy, too, the inserts would be pre made) but since I like a challenge, and didn't really want to fool with buttons, I decided to make two small pillows that would be a good size for travel, or support my poor, miserable arm when I try to sleep. (Forgive my whining. Sorry).

Here are some pictures of the fabric I used.

 Each side of the skirt had different embroidered flowers, too pretty to throw away.

I like the natural color of the linen, too. 

I made the pillow cases envelope fashion, no zipper. I had to make the pillow inserts to fit the pillows. 

Here are the finished pillows. One is a little longer than the other but .......

Not too hard to make. Another unfinished object (UFO) out of the pile, and I sleep better with the little pillow to help support my poor shoulder (sorry, whining again). 

I still have quite a bit of fabric left. It was a large dress. I thought a pincushion or two might be nice. Not sure what else but that's the fun of recycling/upcycling.  

Fabric Roses

I’ve done it. Again. Over promised my time again. It isn’t enough that Prince William is getting married soon but he just so happens to be getting married the same day and a friend. OK, so I am not going to his. No problem. I am, however, creating the decorations (at least some of them) for my friend’s shower. In addition to that, another friend is getting married, too, and I am doing the decorations for her shower, too. The showers are 4 days apart. I am getting stressed.

I fell in love with the look of fabric roses. I don’t know about the silk ones, though. They are very pretty but I don’t work too much with silk and don’t think it is too good an idea to start now, especially with a deadline looming. I chose to make the roses with recycled linen (thrift store finds) and yellow dotted Swiss. I tried doing the rolled roses but I am out of practice with a glue gun and blistered my fingers. Back to needle and thread. I will keep y’all posted on the progress. Hopefully, they will be as beautiful as I plan.

In the meantime, here is a cute pattern from the 60’s. What a beautiful spring dress this would make.

60's Dress Vintage Sewing Pattern Butterick 4069 32 Bust

Post by Eileen Patterson of GoofingOff.etsy, GoofingOff.Artfire, and MissEileen.Etsy