Week 14 - Pillow Mat

This may have been one of my (and my kids') favorite projects so far.  I saw a pin that showed a blog with instructions to make a pillow mat.  It looked so cute that I couldn't resist trying it out!  The pillow mat instructions came from the blog Southern Disposition.  The instructions were super easy to follow, and this project took me about an hour the first time, but only 45 minutes the next.

I started with a shopping trip to IKEA to get the duvet cover and the pillows.  The duvee cost me about $16.99, and, after some searching, I was able to find the $.99 pillows.  I got to work with the duvet when I got home cutting it into half and stitching it per the directions.

I measured the same way she did by laying out the pillows, then I marked the spots to stitch with pins.  It was overall pretty easy, although I did mess up some of the measurements creating some pillow pockets are little bit bigger.  The mat worked out well though, I am just going to add some velcro to avoid the pockets opening and allowing the pillows to come out.  She loved it!

We found that you can even fold one pillow on top of the other to create an elevated pillow for extra cushion under her head. :)  My son wanted one once he saw hers, but I couldn't find a duvet that looked boyish enough for a 7 year old, so we went off to Target to look for a flat sheet.  We found an entire sheet set for the same price that I got the duvet at Ikea in a space print, so we got that.  I figure that I can use the sheets one his bed with a different flat sheet.  It was not hard to convert the instructions to a sheet.  I first cut the sheet to the length of the four pillows since I knew it would be longer than the duvet.  I sewed the raw edge to clean it up.  I folded the sheet in half and pulled out the bottom half of the sheet until the tops half matched the width of the pillows.  I then cut the bottom half about 5 inches longer in width to create the pocket.  I sewed the bottom and top together then sewed up the raw edge and completed it the same as the duvet.  I think that this actually did better b/c the length was created exactly for the pillows making the pillow pockets just right.  The sheet was also a little thicker fabric, not stretching as easily either. 

End result, they both love them!!

They use them for mattresses when they do "slumber parties" in the playroom, and they have actually started using them on top of their real mattresses in their bed b/c they are so comfy!