Gaming throw Pillows

Gaming throw Pillows

When my husband and I were first married I made some scrap fabric throw pillows.  Years later they are still the family joke.  When I had made those pillows I had taken some very old stuffing from other pillows I had been given and put that in the pillows.  The problem with using such old pillow stuffing is that I had to add a lot of it to get the right shape with the pillows.  As a result of adding so much stuffing to those pillows they were as heavy as bricks not fluffy and soft like clouds.  When we had pillow fights with them a person could get hurt if they were not careful.

These pillows were so dense that I will never live those pillows down.  One night I was up with Future Author when she was about a year and a half and she was sick and really uncomfortable.  It was really late and it hurt my heart that I couldn’t seem to ease her discomfort.  I got frustrated, not at her but at my impotence to help her.  I had given her medicine to help with the fever, given her a bath, rubbed lotion into her aching legs and arms, rocked her, sung to her which normally put her to sleep and she just could find no relief.  I was then walking the floor with her to try to keep her moving because sometimes that helped.

Earlier that night my husband had gotten home late from a long day at work and he had chosen to unwind by playing a video game, nothing unusual.  He had finally gone to bed because he had work the next day. 

So while I was walking the floor with her, the house was mostly quiet, except for her moans of discomfort and then she says “Daddy”.  She had recently learned to say his name and understood who she was asking for when she said Daddy.  My husband had been elated that she liked asking for him. 

When she asked for him I leaped at the chance to do something that might give her some comfort.  I walked with her into our room and called my husband’s name but he was solidly asleep.  I called his name a few times, each time getting louder and louder, no response came.  Finally my temper got the better of me I picked up a throw pillow and threw it at him to wake him up and he still didn’t wake up.

Eventually I was able to calm her down and get her to sleep.  After I had thrown the pillow at him I felt bad at throwing something at him.  I know it was just a pillow but I still felt bad. 

The next morning I apologized for throwing the pillow at him.  He had no memory of event so I told him what had happened with Future Author the previous night and about how I was feeling, which had prompted me to throw the pillow at him.  He apologized for not waking up then laughed at me.

I was really confused because I felt horrible about throwing a pillow at him in frustration.  He said”No wonder my nose hurts. I never would have known if you hadn’t told me.”  I had thrown the pillow at his head; it had not occurred to me that I had thrown a “brick” pillow at him. I was just trying to get him to wake up.

To this day he still lovingly teases me about throwing a pillow at his nose.  So when he asked me to make him throw pillows again last year I really hesitated.  I didn’t want to make more “brick” pillows and pillow forms were out of the question because of how expensive they are, even with a coupon and the item on sale.  Pillow forms are the same price as a premade pillows, except they don’t have the fabric on them and my husband doesn’t like any of the designs on the premade ones.

Then I remembered that I had gutted a leather couch for my sisters Aiel costume and I had kept the stuffing which was in really good condition.  The person had gotten rid of the couch because of a rip in the leather and there was nothing else wrong with it. So I decided to swallow (choke down) some humble pie and try to make throw pillows again.

Step#1

Gathering materials. I had soft and fluffy stuffing from the couch.  I had fabric I could use to make the pillow forms from, sheets that my kids had ruined. They had spilled blue paint on a part of my favorite white sheets but that’s another story.  So all I lacked was a top fabric and some cording.

Step#2

People who know me understand I don’t like shopping and I cringe at paying for fabric.  However, I wanted this to be something really nice for my husband.  He was still in so much pain from the accident that we were sleeping on our two couches because that was the only place he could get comfortable enough to sleep.  So when he asked for throw pillows it made a lot of sense.  I went on-line and printed out some Joanne’s coupons.  We went to the store and I had him pick out the fabrics.  We were almost done looking when we walked past this fleece fabric that had controllers, consoles and all kinds of gaming things on it.  I thought it was perfect but I was not sure he would like it.  He thought it was perfect too. So it went into the cart and I didn’t even look at the price.  As we were about to get it cut he mention that he wanted a controller organizer as well from the same material.  So we ended up buying all the material that was left on the bolt.

Step#3

I took apart an old throw pillow that was the right size to use as a pattern.

Step#4

I laid out the white sheets and laid the pattern on top then pinned it down.  I cut out 12 squares.

Step#5

I then took each square and ironed it.

Step# 6

I laid the squares on top of each other so that I then had 6 squares 2 thick.  I pinned them together.

Step#7

I sewed the pillow forms together leaving a small opening on one side to fill in the stuffing.

Step#8

I carefully filled the 6 pillow forms. Trying to get the shape right and walk the balance between filing them without stuffing them so full that they became hard or heavy.  It actually took a long time to get this balance right.  Maybe I was being very picky because of my previous experience but what good does a bad experience do if you don’t learn from it.

Step#9

I sewed the small opening closed. My 6 pillow forms were now complete. In case anybody is wondering if pillow forms are necessary.  I would argue that they do affect how well a pillow holds up over time however that is my opinion. A person doesn’t have to have them.

Step#10

I then took the same pattern and pinned it to my top fabric. I then cut out 6 squares of my top fabric.

Step#11

Then I took the same pattern and gathered my 2 back fabrics. I pinned it to the 2 different back fabrics. Then cut 3 of one back fabric and 3 of the other.

Step#12

I then gathered all my squares top and bottom and surged the edges. It is not necessary to serge your fabric.  However we have 4 children and I was sure these would need to be sturdier in construction so I surged the edges.

Step#13

I then pinned the cording down to the top fabric. Then sewed it down to the right side, I did use a cording foot, it’s easier. (If you don’t have a cording foot you might try a zipper foot.) I repeated this step for all 6 pillows.

Step#14

I then carefully laid all the backs onto the tops, right sides together.  Then pinned them together.  I sewed them together along the cording very slowly so I could control how close the seam was to the cording and the slow pace was worth it.  I got a better result and I didn’t have to redo any parts.  I did leave an opening again so I could fit the pillow form in but it was a larger opening.

Step#15

I flipped all the pillow cases right sides out.  I made sure to poke all the cording out and smooth it out.

Step#16

I stuffed the pillow forms into the pillow cases.

Step#17

I then hand sewed the opening closed. 

I took longer on this project than is strictly necessary because I was being so careful.  However it was worth the result since he still loves these pillows and they have held up really well.  Even better still they are not “brick” pillows.

Materials                 Cost

White sheets-ruined in a corner by my kids 0.00

Stuffing- left over from another project   0.00

Thread- left over from another project    0.00

Gaming fabric-              15.00

Back fabric                       5.00

Back fabric 2                     5.00

Cording                         20.00

Total Cost

                        45.00

Forms from the store were 15.00 a piece so we saved 45.00 on the pillows. I can live with half price for pillows my husband loves.

Instructional Place-mats for silverware

Instructional 

Placemats

Placemats, do they really serve a functional purpose?  Most of the time I would say no. They can be bulky sometimes which makes it hard to place your dishes on them without having them tilted. They are often too small for the size of dishes. For example we have a set of store bought placemats and we can’t fit adult size dishes on them. If we put a plate on them there is no room for a cup and the silverware is right on the edge of the seam for the placemat. 

After this experience I looked around at placemats at various stores and most seem to be about the same size. Or if the placemat is large enough to put adult size dishes on them then there is no room to put the food on the table. 

So what choices do I have if I get a placemat that is large enough for an adult size dish?

1. I could leave the food in another room, serve the food I am going to eat onto my plate and eat in the dining room. The problem here is we have enough problems getting our kids to stay in their seats at meal time without giving them another reason to get out of their seats.

2. Get a wider table, one more like a square than a rectangle. This seems like an extreme solution to me. I don’t want to buy furniture just so I can use something decorative.

3. We don’t use placemats.  Seemed like a reasonable solution to me, there is no practical function to placemats.  The beauty they add does not seem worth the work of washing them after each meal because my kids spilled something on it.

4. We use kids sized plates, bowls and cups.  This option has its benefits to me as an adult. It could help me control my portion sizes more easily. This would be better for my health.

Over the years we have gone with solution #3 and just not used them. Then when we started home school with Spiderman Jr.  we decided to slowly implement the Montessori Method .This meant that sometimes the purpose of an item was for it to be beautiful.  It is an interesting idea that children take better care of things that look and feel nice.  On top of these ideas I watched some instructional videos on how to use the Montessori Method and I saw how everything they do with the kids reinforces personal responsibility.  I also saw on one of the videos a table cloth in the class room that had stitched down places for where the cups, bowls, plates etc. go.  This particular item made me pause because this method builds in ways for the children to see on their own that something is wrong and how they can fix it on their own.  This table cloth fit right in line with this same approach to instruction. 

However, my kids spill a lot and I didn’t want one kids pulling on the table cloth and causing another kids drink to spill.  So I thought individual placemats with stitches showing where everything goes would be a viable alternative.  It also occurred to me that our youngest would not likely go along with the new rules if the older kids didn’t have to when they were home.  So I talked with my older kids and asked for their help. I asked them to go along with the practical life parts of instruction when they were home so that their younger brother would have a good example and they agreed.

So I went to work creating placemats that could be used to teach where to place your cup, bowl, plate, knife, fork and spoon.

Step#1

I gathered some worn jean material

Step#2

 

I cut the two jeans along the seams so that I had flat pieces of fabric.

Step#3

I pinned the two pieces together.

Step#4

I sewed the two pieces together.

Step#5

I opened the seam and pinned it down.

Step#6

I sewed a stitch that was wide enough to hold down both sides of the seam. So that it would be flat rather than bumpy or ridged after washing.

Step#7

I them laid the joined fabric down and pinned the store bought place mat to the material.

Step#8

I cut out 6 place mats.

Step#9

I used the same wide stitch that I had used to flatten and join the two pieces of jean around the edge of the new placemat.  I did this because I know jean frays and I thought this would be a way to embrace it rather than fight it.

Step#10

I took the kids size dishes and placed them on top of the mats and traced them with a fabric pencil.  I decided to use the kid size dishes because that is what the kids use. That size will also help me with portion control.

Step#11

I stitched with white thread where I had marked with the fabric pencil.

Step#12

I washed the placemats to get rid of the fabric pencil marks and to preemptively fray the jean then trimmed the fray.

Step#13

Trying it out on the kids.

Materials                       Cost

Denim- 2 old pairs of Jeans               0.00

White thread-I already had               0.00

Total Cost

                                        0.00

 I believe they find them fun to use.  However, they still grumble and complain when I ask them to wash their own dish, and roll up their mat to put it away.  It has now been a month and a half of using these instructional place mats. They occasionally use the store bought ones (when the ones I made are in the wash) without the stitches indicating where everything goes and they get where things go without the stitches 60% of the time.  Their behavior at the table is also slowly improving which is very nice for my husband and me.  From my perspective it has been nice to add a functional purpose to something that is normally only decorative.