Placemat pillows

I have been wanting new pillows for our family room foreva. I was tired of the dark pillows we had in there so I've been looking for just the right fabric to make new ones for months. Last week I found a shower curtain that was perfect. (Yes, a shower curtain.) I left it at Homegoods (yes, I know better) and went back a couple days later and all four curtains in that print were gone. What the ??

So yesterday I spent an hour at Joann's looking for fabric and still didn't see anything that I loved. At the end of the day I ran into Pier One just to see what they had, and nada.

I moseyed over to the table linens to look for another option to make pillows that I had seen awhile back. YES, table linens. I found these and they were perfect:
Yep, placemats. Six bucks a pop. In exactly the colors of our family room. I saw this idea a couple months ago on a blog and cannot remember for the life of me where I saw it, so if you know, tell me and I'll credit her!! (YES! Thanks ladies. It was Katie from Bower Power.)

It was sooooo easy to do this people. Sew easy. HARDY HAR HAR. I used a seam ripper to make a hole in the two fabrics:

That took about five minutes per pillow.

I made a hole big enough for my hand to get in:

Then stuffed like a mad woman. Hobby Lobby has their bags of stuffing on sale for $1.99 this week, so I scored on that one. I used one bag of stuffing per placemat pillow:

Stuffing always takes me longer than everything else combined, every time. I finished it up with a really simple stitch. I don't know what it's called, it just closed it up and that's all I care about:

I didn't even use matching thread people. No one will ever notice, seriously.

Oh my goodness, I LOVE them!!:

I love the little beads on the side that are a little I-will-be-pulled-off-by-the-two-year-old-by-tomorrow bling:
I just love the simplicity of them, and the texture of the fabric. They are plain but that's just what I wanted.

I'm so excited because they also had a rust colored placemat that I didn't get yet (I know, I don't learn) but will be back tomorrow to pick up. It will be perfect for the fall and winter months. Glee!!!

Here's the before pillows (water marks and all):

I still love my striped pillows but they are a little worse for the wear.

Here's another after:

Ahhh yes, simple, clean. CHEAP.
Stay tuned for the accent pillows I'm making to add a little more umph. You'll never guess what I'm making those out of!! If you guess you win a dollar. :)