“You’ll definitely be able to wear it again,” are the famous last words of brides everywhere. If you have an old bridesmaid dress in your closet (or any type of dress you no longer wear), it’s time to free up space. Make room for the clothes you really will wear again and see that bridesmaid dress in a new light—as gorgeous fabric that’s perfect for making throw pillows. These simple steps will have you stitching in no time.
- Disassemble the dress: Use a seam ripper or small sewing scissors to carefully cut out the stitching along the seams of your dress, to release all of the large sections of fabric. Depending on the dress style, you’ll either cut from the armhole to the hem, or possibly just down the sides of the skirt. You can also carefully cut out any embellishments, sashes, bows or other decorative elements. Save these as they might make a perfect decoration on your new pillows.
- Press and cut the fabric: Carefully iron or steam the large pieces of fabric on low heat to remove all of the wrinkles (be sure to follow the fabric manufacturer’s directions). Take an old throw pillow (or buy one from a consignment store), lay it on the fabric, and cut the fabric two inches larger than the pillow on all sides. Cut another piece of fabric the exact same size.
- Pin and sew the fabric: Pin the two pieces of fabric together (with the “wrong” side of the fabric facing out) one inch in from the cut. Sew three sides of the square along these pinned lines, either by hand or with a sewing machine.
- Stuff the pillow: Turn the sewn pillowcase “right-side out” and stuff the pillow into the opening. Tuck in the cut edges for a clean edge, and sew the pillowcase closed by hand. (More advance sewers can choose to sew in a zipper here instead, so the pillowcase is removable.)
- Add the final touches: Once you have your pillowcase sewn and stuffed, you can add on (by hand sewing) the decorative elements you saved from the dress. Then, depending on how much fabric your dress yielded, you can make one or two matching pillows!
