I made my original denim throw pillow on a whim – I wanted to try sewing a pillow but also wanted the challenge of upcycling. I brainstormed a few ideas (over a few drinks) and the rest is history. There was no way to anticipate how much I would love making throw pillows. While I loved my original pllow, I wanted to improve my technique and expand my design sensibilities. I couldn’t think of a better way to do so than creating a mini colleciton of eight throw pillows. The build video for this collection can be seen above and a brief overview can be found below.

By now, I’ve mastered the art of deconstructing pants. A few snips along major seam lines and I had large panels of denim, chinos, and corduroy to work with. Surprisngly, most of the pants I worked with were donated, in fact, I think I only had one pair in the mix.

While brainstorming I sketched out 8 pillow designs, including precise measurements, for each pillow’s pattern – turns out my love of math finally came in handy. Once the pants were deconstructed into panels, it was time to draw patterns and slice away.

Sewing has become a therapeutic process… or, rather, it is when my thread isn’t catching on my bobbin or when my thread isn’t breaking from faulty tension settings. Needless to say, these things happened a lot and I learned a lot. I love learning something new as I take on these projects. Overcome obstacles has made the struggles worth it.

As you can imagine, I left a lot of boring details out of the build video. The edges of the pillow’s interior were zigzag stitched to reduce denim/chino/corduroy fraying and any edges that couldn’t be sewn were fray-checked. The pillows were closed using a black polyester zipper and filled with a microfiber, hypoallergenic pillow insert.

I’d say the end results are pretty spectacular! I was so proud of these pillows that I decided to sell them on my new Etsy shop. I’m even more proud to announce that my first collection sold out before I could finish editing the build video. I’m currently working on another collection of throw pillows (made of salvaged knit fabrics) but I may skip a build video in lieu of a post here. I need to diversify my YouTube content and I have a few fun ideas to do just that.

So… which was your favorite throw pillow?