Shamrock Pillow

I love to add little items to my home, here and there, to help celebrate holidays. Some holidays are enormous productions of lights, gifts, decorations, and food. St. Patrick's Day, at least in my home, is usually much less to do than more notable holidays like Christmas, Halloween, and Easter. Still, I like to enjoy a few of the customs of St. Patrick's Day like wearing green, serving green eggs for breakfast and enjoying corned beef and cabbage for the rest of the day. My husband and I will even have a green beer, if we can escape the kids.

This year, I thought having a few extra touches around the house would help to get us into the spirit of St. Patrick's Day. Below, are a few images of the handmade decorations I've put up around the house. For this post, however, I'm sharing a very special pillow that I made out of an old maternity sweater. I'm sharing just how easy it was to make and maybe this will inspire someone to make one for their home, as well.

And my Shamrock Pillow, of course:

To make the Shamrock Pillow, I sifted through some clothes I planned to give to Goodwill, for something bright green. I found an old, maternity sweater that was perfect for this project. I turned the sweater inside out and using fabric markers, I freehand drew a chunky shamrock shape.

Next, leaving only one side of the shamrock stem alone, I used my sewing machine to sew the front and back of the shirt together. Then I cut the shape out, leaving a thin edge of fabric around the stitched line. If you try this, make sure you leave the small opening in the stitches so you can turn the fabric right-side out again and stuff the pillow.

I had an old bed pillow that had a big tear and was otherwise going to be thrown in  the garbage. So, I took the stuffing from the old pillow and stuffed it into this one.

Finally, using just a hand needle and thread, I stitched the small opening after I had stuffed the pillow to the thickness I wanted for softness and pillow shape.... and viola!