Repurposing Fabric; Clothes to Bedding

 Hello Readers. Sometimes we get stuck on what things are supposed to be and we miss what they could be. I needed and wanted some new bedding but what I had was clothing. I never would have thought to use the clothes to make bedding until I noticed the colors matched so well. But fabric is fabric so, let's repurpose a few items of clothing to make some fun bedding.

Before and after some easy sewing.

I found this duvet cover at a swap and loved the colors and the fun stripes. I really didn't have any pillow cases to go with it. I thought I would work on that later.

 

I didn't have any fabric in my stash to match the duvet but I saw this dress on my clothes rack. The colors seemed perfect. I liked the mix of patterns a lot too. I could mix several patterns and get a fun, eclectic bed. The clothing items were all different so let's look at each one at a time. First, this dress.

 

I put the dress on the floor and saw immediately that the skirt was large enough to make a pillowcase. I used and old pillow case as a pattern. The hem of the dress could be the open end of the pillowcase. I cut around the pillow case with my sharpest scissors and left about 1/4 inch of each side as a seam allowance. That way I would have room for my new seams. 

The pillowcase is just a rectangle with an open end to put the pillow in and out. 

 

  I needed to sew it together with the right sides facing each other. That hemmed edge from the dress will be the open end of my new pillowcase and it is already hemmed for me.

 

These clothing items are all cotton and linen so they will make comfortable bedding. Some dresses have a lining. This dress had a nylon lining that I did not sew in my pillowcase. I threw it away after I cut my rectangle. I do not know of a use for the nylon. It doesn't breathe and it wouldn't make a nice pillow.

 

Let's look at the second dress. This dress had the color scheme I wanted so I took it out and spread it on the floor for cutting too. It had a pleated skirt. I needed to remove the skirt from the dress to lay it out flat for cutting. 

 

 I used the same pillowcase as a pattern for my cutting. The skirt was not long enough to cut the pillowcase vertically from the skirt. I had to cut it horizontally from the skirt. That is not a problem, it is just going to be a little different to sew together.

 

   I sewed it together with the right sides facing each other and left one short end open for the pillow. 

 

  I had to hem that open side to finish the pillowcase. That was not difficult.

 

 I turned the edge under and stitch it down. I turned the fabric in twice and stitched it down all the way around the opening of the pillowcase.

 

 The other 2 clothing items were shirts. They were both medical scrub style shirts and I cut them both the same way. I cut across the body of the shirt horizontally and used the body of the shirt as my pillowcase. The V-neck and shoulders were not a good fit to use for my pillows.  

 

The shirt was not wide enough for the length of my pillowcase so I needed to add a bit of fabric to the end. That gives me the chance to add another pattern of fabric. I liked that. 

 

I compared the new pillowcase fabric I had cut to the old pillowcase I was using as a pattern so I could see how much fabric I needed to add to get the right size pillowcase. I measured with my sewing gauge. I needed about 3 inches of extra fabric to add enough length to my pillowcase. I went digging in my fabric stash. 

 

I found another floral that I thought would complement the other fabrics I was using. 

 

I cut strips of fabric to add to the ends of the pillowcases that I cut out from the shirts. 

 

To save time I folded the pink fabric so that I wouldn't have to hem the end of the pillowcase. The folded piece is about 3 inches wide, so about 6 inches wide when unfolded. I wanted to use fabric that I had on hand so I didn't worry about being exact with the measurements too much. I clipped the added fabric to the right side of the pillow fabric. 

I sewed the cut edges of the light pink fabric to the edge of the pillow case. 

When the light pink fabric I added is flipped up it has a nicely finished seam and I can sew the 2 sides of the whole pillowcase together with the right sides facing each other. All the edges will be finished and sewn together. 

The second shirt was cut and sewn in the same way. I liked how the added pink fabric looked and it gave me the extra length I needed. 

Here are all my finished pillowcases. It is a fun mix of fabrics. 

Then I made the bed. The pillowcases fit well. Using a pillowcase as a pattern was a good way to make sure the new pillowcases turned out to be the right size. 

Pillow fabric close-up!

Thanks for reading along with my fabric repurposing project and sweet dreams to you.