A couple guests have mentioned that a cozy chair in the guest room would be a welcome addition. While we have a nice queen bed, desk and chair, there’s no spot to just “chill.”
I spent a few months scouring auction listings but failed to find anything suitable–I wanted a smaller chair that swiveled, ideally upholstered in a neutral color. Then one day around the holidays last year, I ventured into a World Market store. You never know what you will find in those stores–one year I found the most appropriate framed stegosaurus print which now hangs in my office, and a few years later I found some chairs for the upstairs area of the great room and a fun circular wall shelf for the dining area.
Last year was no different. I ended up finding a great chair for the guest room. It’s small, off-white and swivels. It fits right in and provides a comfy spot for guests, so they’re not limited to camping out on the bed or at the desk.
The chair need a little something extra, though, as it is quite plain. I went into my stash of fabric scraps and pulled out some of the cute dinosaur-patterned fabric that I used to make the bed skirt and drawer liners for that room. Then I grabbed a dead pillow–the sort you no longer want to use for sleeping but is still in good enough shape that you would feel guilty if you binned it. With the help of a needle and thread, some scissors and one of my sewing machines, I soon had a couple throw pillows.
The trick when working with old pillows is to sew first and cut after. Two simple lines of long stitches down the middle of the pillow allows you to separate the stuffing fairly well, then you cut a quick whipstitch along the seam to keep the stuffing inside the pillow. To make the cases, I used my interlocker and just took a length of fabric that was about 2″ wider than the pillows and long enough to wrap one and a half times around the pillow. I used a rolled-edge stitch along the short edges, then folded it almost like a square envelope and used the same stitch all the way around the square.
That worked so well I made some other pillows. But more on that in another post.