How to Stuff a Large Pillow on the Cheap

I recently came into some good-sized fabric scraps, and thought they'd make nice sofa pillows for our den. Our sofa is a dark brown, and the walls are painted a very light green. The fabric, striped with shades of taupe, blues, and greens, brought the two together nicely.

Polyfill, or any type of fiberfill, can cost a fortune - anywhere from $10 - $20 a bag. The large pillows I made here would have taken 5 - 10 bags, which would have made these pillows much more pricey than I would like. Instead of purchasing filler, I decided to look around our house for alternative stuffing to see if I could find anything usable. My pack-rat habits paid off for once!

I had a large bin of fabric scraps which were mostly sweater pieces. Many were wool sweaters that I'd felted. Others were leftover sleeves and t-shirt pieces left from long-finished projects. I decided the sweaters were ideal because they were bulky but not too heavy.

I sewed the fabric as I normally would to make a pillow: with right sides together, sew three sides along the edge, then sew the fourth side partially, leaving an opening wide enough to stuff the insides. Turn right sides out, then start stuffing.

I didn't quite have enough sweaters to completely fill both pillows, so I finished off the rest with an old mattress cover and the contents of an old bed pillow.

Once the pillows were stuffed, I hand-stitched them closed, and they were done! We love having them on the sofa - it really does make the sofa more comfy, and I love how they brighten up the room.

One drawback: these pillows are heavier than they would have been with fiberfill. However, given the fact that I ended up with huge, great-looking pillows for free, I don't mind it at all!