Do you have pillow forms hiding at your house?  Maybe in your garage?  Closet?  Craft room?  Yeah, me too.  And when I say “pillow form”, I am also referring to ugly throw pillows that just need to be updated.  Like the ugly hunter green checkered pillow that I adored in the 90’s.  It has been hiding in the garage for the last 10+ years.  Well, I resurrected it today with this:

I know what you are thinking… that is one stylish blouse.  Am I right?  Or am I right?  Or am I right?  The fabric is a really shiny rayon/polyester mix that doesn’t photograph well, but you get the gist.  This blouse came from my local, small town thrift store that likes to do deals like “as many clothes as you can stuff in a bag for $2” sales.  Yep, I shoved this in my bag, knowing that I wanted it for the fabric only.  I wanted to see if I could use it to make some of these silk flowers:

 

Unfortunately, my gray shiny blouse was an epic fail for that project.  Caught on fire!  Luckily, I was near the kitchen sink.  I know that polyester fabric melts, so I just “Bing”ed the question, “Is rayon flammable?”.  The answer, “Yes. Very much so.”.  Perhaps I should have checked before I lit it with a candle.  Hmmm…you learn something new every day.

I couldn’t let the blouse go to waste, I mean, it cost me a quarter.  I got my thinking cap on and thought of my ugly hunter green checkered pillow hiding in my garage and out it came.  Remember this pillow tutorial where I made a heart-shaped pillow out of a sweater with buttons?  Same concept here.  I just cut out two rectangles just a bit bigger than my pillow form using the front and the back of the blouse and then sewed around all four sides.  No need to leave an opening  so I could shove the form in and hand sew it shut.  No way… that is where the buttons come in handy.  Check it out:

Can you see how I made the buttons (which were purposely hidden on this particular blouse) off center.  Much better than sticking them smack-dab in the middle.  Don’t you agree.  I made a floppy bow using one of the sleeves and just safety pinned it on.  That way I can reposition it later if I want to.  I will show you how I did the bow some other time.  Promise.

Since it is a rectangular pillow, it can sit either way:

Now you can see why I just pinned the bow on… I might want to change the position depending on which direction the pillow faces.

I seriously spent more time getting my sewing machine set up and then put back away than I spent making this simple pillow.  You have GOT to try one for yourself.  Resurrect an old pillow of your own.  Time to do some blouse shopping.