Pillowcase Pillow Mattress

I just realized that a lot of my posts will probably have two common themes. First of all, there will probably be a lot of posts that are about some type of hand-me-down item that was given to me by a family member. Second, many of my posts will probably be about projects that I have created for my daughters.

My mother-in-law gave me a stack of old pillowcases and bedsheets that were all in really good condition. We've used many of them on our beds, but some of the pillowcases I set aside until inspiration struck for a project. Thank you Pinterest, this fun mattress popped up and I knew what I could use them for.

(from here)

After doing some research and seeing tuturorials out there from others who had tried to recreate this, I knew that they hadn't used individual pillowcases. Most people had used a solid piece of fabric and then sewn across to create the five pockets. Since I already had the pillowcases on hand so I decided to give it a try.

For my first attempt I just sewed all five pillowcases together. It turned out like this:

It was great, I bought five of the dollar pillows from IKEA to put in the cases, and it was perfect for a two-year old to use for over night trips. She even slept on it for almost two weeks straight while we were refinishing the wood floors in the upstairs bedrooms. As you can see, it was plenty long and a little bulky to carry around. The pillowcases were also pretty loose around the pillows, so there were big gaps between the pillows. So, I decided with a little unpicking and a little cutting, that the pillow mattress could be improved.

I measured the pillows and found that they were about 17 inches long, so I cut off about 3 inches from one side on each of the four of the pillowcases. I decided to only use four instead of five this time.

I then turned the inside out and sewed the back together. Then I sewed all four of them together again. I also top-stitched over the little flap created from the seam from sewing the together just to make it look a little more finished. This is what my second attempt left me with:

 
It was much less bulky this time. The perfect size for my toddler with some room to grow. The gap between the pillows is much smaller. I still think that I will add some Velcro or ribbon ties to the open edges of the pillowcases to help keep the pillows in a little bit better. My little bug thinks that it is great to pad her landing when she jumps down the stairs.

-Mandi

Linking here to The Space Between & here to Blue Cricket Designs.