DIY Lumbar Pillow

Hey you crafty ladies!

I have been in the mood to fluff up our guest room (it gets A LOT of traffic!).  So like a lot of you out there I started scouring Pinterest for ideas.  I now have a board dedicated to the beautification of said room.  I’m going for a vintage-frenchy-handmedown-soft-burlap-linen kind of feel.  On the board I have pinned a lumbar pillow from Pottery Barn, which they no longer sell.  That’s okay though, I’ll forgive them.  I like to sew and my neighbor has an embroidery machine.  It’s a match made in DIY heaven I tell ya.

But before I get any further ahead of myself, I want to tell you about this lumbar pillow.  See, the problem was… I didn’t have a form and I knew that buying one the size I was envisioning would be out of my budget (which is $0.00).  But I had this king-sized pillow form that my incredibly wonderful mom didn’t need and I had snatched taken it off of her hands this summer while we were home.  It had been sitting in the closet just waiting for it’s moment to shine!

King Louie and I took some pictures of my process in transforming this pillow into it’s new fabulousness.  (Is he squinting at me?  I know he thinks I’m crazy)

Plain old king-size pillow.  You could use regular size too, this is just what I could lift from my mom’s house without her noticing  had on hand.

Then I just measured to find the middle length-wise.  I made several marks down the middle of the pillow to be sure and make a straight cut.

Here is where I cut it length-wise down the middle.  I removed the stuffing (that is the same color as King Louie….hmmmm) and cut the back side as well.

Now having two long skinny pieces I cut off both of the ends of each piece ( you wouldn’t have to do this, but my pillow form was a boxed style and I wanted the ends to match).  I cut these off so that I could sew the separate pieces together.  (hang in there, the pictures are coming…)

Once I sewed the middle seam I was able to cut it to the length that I wanted.  This is were it can get fun!!  If you want a lumbar that is the full width of a king YOU GOT IT!!  Don’t trim a bit!  I wanted it to be the width of a queen bed so I trimmed about 8″ on each side.

The next step is to sew right sides together all the way around leaving enough space to turn it right side out.

Then cram it full of the leftover stuffing (making sure not to stuff similarly colored pets along the way, ahem).  Sew it shut and VOILA!

Next step is to make a cover for it (and sweet talk your neighbor to embroider for you).  I’m thinking about ‘good night’ in French, but wouldn’t it be funny if I put a phrase in French that said ‘Guests are like fish, they stink after 3 days’.  hahahasnort   I would never do or say such a thing.  wink wink

Grace and Peace

H