Iron Craft ’15 Challenge #14 – Blue Plaid Pillows

You would think since I am the one to come up with the Iron Craft challenges that I wouldn’t have any problem coming up with ideas for them. I try to be fair and not create the challenges based on a project I already have in mind, so sometimes I do struggle. This week’s challenge was a color challenge and we were to make something that was prominently blue. Blue seems like an easy color, right?! But I couldn’t think of what to make. I’m knitting up some blue mittens, but they wouldn’t be done on time. Then I remembered I needed to sew up some pillows for my sister and the fabric was a blue plaid! Problem solved.

My sister is redoing her boys’ bedroom. She started by recovering an Ikea chair with a blue plaid slipcover and adding a second chair in the same plaid. She didn’t want to spend the money to replace all their bedding. It is light blue so it still matches, but she wanted to bring the plaid in. Ikea does not sell the fabric or match pillows, so she bought another slipcover for me to work with.

The bolsters for each bed are made from the seat of the slipcover. It was just enough fabric to cover the pillow forms she already had. I still had all the fabric from the chair slipcover, so I turned that into a big pillow they could use on the floor while playing. With this one I was able to use the zipper already in the slipcover for a closure, I just had to shorten it a little. This was really nice fabric to work with and the plaid was so nicely placed on the slipcovers that I was able to match it up on the sides. It isn’t the cheapest way to get throw pillows, but if you want an exact match it is a great option.