Seahorse placemat pillow – simple sewing

A placemat pillow is one of the quickest and easiest ways to make a pillow.  I love finding fancy placemats and turning them into pillows.  If I purchased embroidered fabric the pillows would be very expensive to make.  I picked up a 4 pack of place mats on clearance for $5 and I even had a 20% off coupon bringing the cost down to one dollar a piece for the embroidered seahorses.   I could have left them as rectangles but I wanted them as small accent pillows to go in front of my other pillows.  The seahorse pillows will be my summer pillows.

Materials to make a placemat pillow:

• Placemat
• fabric for backing
• Polyfil Fiberfill for stuffing
• Scissors or rotary cutter, ruler and mat
• Sewing machine and coordinating thread
• Pins
• Iron and ironing board
• Bamboo skewer or wooden spoon

Instructions to make a seahorse pillow:

1. Decide on the size and shape you want your pillow.  I went with squares and trimmed the fronts of the placemats down to 11×11 squares.
2. Cut a piece of fabric for the back to the same size as the front of the pillow.
3. Place right sides of fabric together and pin around the pair leaving a small opening to add in the Polyfil.
4. Sew around 3 of the four sides completely and then make sure you leave the opening on the 4th side  for stuffing.
5. Trim off any excess fabric and clip the corners at an angle.  This will give you better corners when you turn the fabric right side out.
6. Turn the pillow right side out.  Iron the pillow front and back. I like to iron the opening where the stuffing is going so it has a crisp edge and is easier to sew closed.
7. Stuff the pillow with the Polyfil.  Use the skewers to push the filling into the corners.
8. Pin the opening closed and use a whip stitches or a straight stitch to close the opening.

Sit back relax and enjoy your seahorse placemat pillow. No one will know it started out as a placemat unless you tell them what a genius you are. If you love Seahorses try this recycled coastal cabinet. 

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