Recycled Bags = Porch Pillow

 

A few weeks ago, I read about using recyclable grocery bags as pillow forms.  I thought this was incredibly creative!  Not to mention affordable.  The blogger who demonstrated this was Diane at inmyownstyle.com.  She has some really fun and inspiring ideas and I love looking through her project files.

I especially loved the pillow idea because I have tons of plastic bags, and lots of scrap fabric to make pillows.  It took about 60 bags or so, rolled up and squished into one regular size plastic bag.  I taped the bag closed once I had it stuffed as full as I wanted it.  Then I just cut my fabric.  I made one pillow about 12inches by 15, using an envelope style cover so I can easily take the bag out if I need to wash the cover.

The fabric is a cheerful floral print by Heather Bailey.  I love her vintage style prints.

The other fabric was a smaller, rectangular piece of Heather Bailey.  It was all I had of this print, but I love it and really wanted to use it for my other pillow.  So I just shaped the bags to fit the fabric piece. To make it work, I decided to leave one end open and use some ribbon for ties.  But this meant the inside would be visible on that end, so I made another little envelope style cover for the bags first, and then the outer slip.  I had some cute pink and white polka dot that I liked with the green floral print.

 

 

 

Although the pillows look like regular pillows, you can hear a little crackling kind of sound when you squeeze them.  Like the sound of about 60 plastic bags squished together.   

But I noticed that the tighter I squished the bags into their main bag, the less I could hear it. 

 

All the same, no one has suspected what they were made of, or probably even cared what they were made of, unless I’ve pointed it out.

Which of course I have done, with my family and close friends!  But you all won’t tell, will you?! 

 

Now go make one yourself!