How-To: Make a Pillow Without Polyfill

pillow

Finishing Your Pillow

OK, so you’ve stuffed and stuffed, and your little pillow is practically bursting with scraps. You’re ready to finish this sucker off! Use a couple of pins to close off the opening, and stitch it closed either by hand or on your machine. If you opt to machine stitch, make sure you back-stitch on either end so the opening is extra secure.

The completed pillow might be slightly lumpier than one stuffed with polyfill, but it wasn’t nearly as lumpy as I’d feared it would be. Plus, every time you lean on it, you get to feel good about reducing waste and making a cute pillow all at the same time!

Do any of you guys use scraps for stuffing? I’d love to hear your experiences in the comments!

10 thoughts on “How-To: Make a Pillow Without Polyfill”

  1. So funny to see this today. I’ve been collecting my tiny scraps to use for pillows since I saw a friend collecting them at the quilt store to make dog beds for the animal shelter!

  2. If you really want to get serious about ammassing a large amount of scraps in a short time, check with a local quilters guild or quilter friends.  You may even be able to find a quilters retreat center if you can have a special bin for scraps only that quilters can put their scraps in. 

    Do you think you could also add rags like worn out undershirts or socks that are cut up?

    1. You could choose to do that, if you wanted to. I don’t think there would be any harm to you in it. You’d likely want to be very mindful of the temperature at which you’re drying your scraps and thread bits, however–it’s surprising how durable insect eggs can be.

      1. Freezing your scraps for a good period of time (say a few days to a week) will kill nearly everything. For extra measure soak in a 50/50 vinegar water wash for another day or two. Then launder, highest temp if possible. I’ve done this with things that moths or silverfish have gotten into and have never seen them return as a result of incomplete cleaning.

  3. We made some of these years ago when my scraps were getting out of control! We called them brick pillows because the scraps make the pillows so much heavier than the polyfill.

  4. I’ve recently been making a quilt style blanket out of tshirts and after cutting those tshirts i wondered what i could do with all the scraps. This is the perfect DIY to use those scraps!

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