Drop Cloth Decor

Drop Cloth Challenge

I am all about creating things I love for my home at a fraction of what it would cost to buy new!  So when Gina Luker of The Shabby Creek Cottage tossed out a Drop Cloth Challenge to a bunch of bloggers I was ready!  I needed a quick and easy drop cloth project.  I have been drooling over all of the farmhouse pillows that are everywhere on Pinterest and Instagram these days.  Time to make some for me!  And really…can you ever actually have too many pillows???  I think not!  What an easy way to update your decor in a few minutes! Simply switch out your pillows!  Better yet…use a Drop Cloth as fabric!

I recently had someone consign an estate at my store, The Blue Building Antiques and Consignment.  I love handling estates!  It’s like Christmas Day!  You just don’t know what you are going to find.  Every time I grab another box or bag of goodies I get excited.

Donna, a friend of one of my dealers, had recently moved and decided to down size.  She had some fabulous Mid Century decor items.  In the lot, I found two 22 inch pillow forms!  Perfect for this Drop Cloth Challenge!  It’s been a busy month at the store so, again, I chose an easy project…Drop Cloth pillow covers!  I wanted to make changeable pillow covers so I could keep the same pillow forms, switch out the covers according to the season and store the covers flat when I am not using them.  No big clunky pillows to store from season to season…just the cover.

Supplies for Drop Cloth Pillow Covers

One drop cloth, any size

Scissors

Sewing machine

Silhouette Machine (for stencil) but you can free hand your design

Black craft paint

Small paint brush

Two 22 inch square pillow forms

I had a huge section of Drop Cloth left over from a project from April  when I recovered an ottoman.  It was a pretty complicated project for me, being my first upholstery project with real cording and all.  Read about it here.  I’m still snickering about that project!  It was for the Fab Furniture Flippin’ Contest and the theme was Mix N’ Match.  What do I do?  A plain Drop Cloth ottoman, no pattern, no color, nothing mixing and matching!  I was so overwhelmed by the actual upholstery project that I solely concentrated on just that…getting the darn thing completed.  Well, live and learn is the lesson!  It turned out pretty good for my first project but I certainly did learn a lot in the process!

I have basic sewing skills.  Translation:  I can pretty much sew a straight line.  So this project needed to be simple.

The Drop Cloth that I had was so huge that it was actually pieced in the middle.  I really liked this seam so I decided to use it in my pillow for added character.

Getting Started with a Plan

I cut  three 24 inch x 24 inch squares out of the Drop Cloth.

One square will be the front, the other two will comprise the back with a pocket so I can slide the pillow form in and out easily.  Sounds simple, right?

Time to Sew!

I finished one edge on each of the back pieces.  Note:  I did take a shortcut since one piece of the Drop Cloth had a finished edge already!  Yay!  I love shortcuts!

Next, I folded this over to create the pocket.  I sewed it into place.

I did the same to the second back piece.  Then I simply sewed all of the edges of the four sides together making sure to have my pretty sides facing each other.

I turned the cover inside out.  To my surprise, the pillows fit perfectly!  And I had a beautiful pillow cover, pocket and all!  I removed the pillow forms to apply the stencil to the fronts.  I used my Silhouette machine to create a stencil for my first pillows.  I simply selected a few messages that I like.  I used black craft paint to stencil the sayings onto the pillows.

Hopefully these pics make sense.  This was soooo much easier that I thought it would be!

The only snag in this whole project occurred when I wanted to stage the pillows.

Apparently I didn’t realize it was nap time!   Her Highness does not like to be interrupted during nap time!

This project was so very easy that I will be making many more pillows!