I can't take credit for the basis for this idea. I was inspired by Maryann over at Domestically Speaking when she posted about making these placemat pillows. I have been on the lookout for clearance placemats since!
I found these placemats at Target on clearance for $1.98. I really like the design on them, and they were the "two-ply" construction that this project requires.
The first step is to rip a few inches of the seam so that you have room to stuff the pillow. This step took me the longest because it turns out cheap Target placemats aren't sewn that well. Weird.
This is where I deviated from the original placemat pillow idea. I was too cheap to use a whole mess of poly-fil on these pillows. The stuffing that I ended up using was slightly more, well....
...plastic!
If you are anything like me, you have an enormous stash of old plastic bags shoved into a drawer or cabinet somewhere. I do have a few reusable shopping bags, but I always forget to bring them to the store so I end up with millions of these guys. I know you can bring them back to the store to recycle them, but if I can't remember to bring the reusable bags, you can probably guess how often I remember to recycle the plastic ones.
Disclaimer: If you use the plastic bags as filler, be warned that the pillows will be slightly lumpy and very crinkly. For me, that was actually bonus. I didn't want these pillows to be very comfortable because then they would get used for naps and snuggles. I want these pillows to be purely decorative, so having them be a little bit uncomfortable is fine by me.
Shove a whole mess of bags into the hole you created in the placemat. If you shake each bag out a little before you put it in, you will avoid the really big, hard lumps in the pillow. Once the pillow is filled out to your liking, sew the seam back up.
I love my new pillows, and you just can't beat $2 a pop for throw pillows!
