How to: make 3 kilim pillows for the price of one

Here is how I made three Kilim pillows for the price of one.

Don't you just love all these Kilim pillows that are popping up all over at moment? Or has been for a while?

I do, but I don't love the price. They are usually around 40-50 dollars, but I have seen them going for up to 100 dollars some places. For one pillow. Ouch.



So when PotteryBarn had a sale on Memorial day on Kilim rugs, I snagged up this 3x2 ft. Surrey Kilim rug (discontinued but similar one here) for around 47 dollars and free shipping.

I love free shipping. Almost as much as a full tank of gas and a foot massage.



I went to JoAnn's and got myself a 4 ft piece of neutral Sunbrella fabric for around 10 dollars - they have 50% off at the moment - I only used half of it for this project.

I wanted the zipper to be attached to the back of the Sunbrella fabric so I didn't have to fiddle with a rug and a zipper at the same time.

I already had some pillow inserts from some IKEA pillows where I wasn't into the covers anymore. My inserts were about 12 x 24 inches.



I used 22 inch zippers. I put the long strip of narrow fabric on top of the bigger rectangle, then sewed in a couple of inches from each side until my opening matched the length of my zipper.



Next, I stitched the zipper to the long narrow strip first. My fold of fabric was half an inch here. Before getting to the zipper slider, I lifted the foot, while the needle was still inserted into the fabric, zipped the slider passed the foot, then lowered it and continued sewing.



For the other side of the zipper, I made the fabric fold one inch and secured with pins. This was to create an overlap to hide the zipper completely.



Then I measured that my pillow was still to measurement. Here you can see that I made my width 13 inches. I later cut off an inch of the bigger rectangle. The short side should say 12 inches, or you won't have enough rug to go around. And stuff.



Then I flipped the whole thing over and checked that I had fabric behind the zipper on the back like this.



Then flipped it again and stitched the whole thing from the front.



Next I used some stronger thread. You can't really tell by the picture above, but the difference in feel is that of a human hair compared to a horse hair perhaps. Except polyester. So more Little Pony... Less horse.



I used a wide, tight zig-zag to stitch along the long sides of each pillow as you can see here. I did that so that the zig-zag would catch each thread in the rug a couple of times and prevent it from unraveling when I cut it later. Therefore, I also sewed the first side of the second pillow before cutting off the first pillow cover.



Remember to zig-zag all the way to the edge to prevent fraying even if there is no fabric all the way there. Then cut between two rows of zig-zag to separate the pillow covers.

Stitch the ends together too. Maybe sure your zipper is un-zipped before sewing the last edge. Yeah. Do that.



Here is what the pillows look like from behind with the zipper towards the bottom.

Now, If you followed along on the math, and I know you did, you realized there was 12 x 24 inches of rug for each pillow and with the inserts being the same size, what happened to seam allowance?

Three things happened.

1. I threw caution to the wind.
2. I made the seams as small as possible along the outer edge of the pillows.
3. The rug and the Sunbrella fabric are so thick that you can't tell that the pillows are a tiny bit squished inside there.



And here is my pillow on our sectional outside on our patio which we just recently made ready for summer with a new fire-pit. I also recently made those black cushions and the forever succulent for the table. The rug is a Trellis rug from Crate&Barrel.

My tables are the Åpplarö from IKEA. They start out a nice brown color when you buy them, but then they fade after a couple of years. So last year, I painted them and the outdoor dining table this barn wood color.



I think this is the perfect splash of color that the lounge area needed.



I am showing you all three pillows here so you can see that, indeed, I did get three pillows out of that one rug. One of the pillows, however, is going to live elsewhere in the house. The one on the right. Here is looking at you kid. I have special plans for you.