Posted on 3 Comments

Pillow talk

Christmas mix-and-match pillows, at Polka Dot Cottage

I’ve had a set of two holiday throw pillows for several years. They’re not really my style anymore, and one of them has a split seam with stuffing coming out of it. Every year I pull these pillows out of storage, and every year I make a face and say to myself, “I really need to make festive covers for these.”

Christmas mix-and-match pillows, at Polka Dot Cottage

The living room has a Santa Claus theme, inspired by the magnificently-kitschy double-sided light-up Santa head in the window. I said this about Tacky Santa (as we now call him) in 2007:

He is another family hand-me-down to come our way when Neil’s parents moved to a smaller place earlier this year. Neil’s father used to love this huge, tacky, double-sided Santa head. Neil’s mother used to hide it away in the attic and claim she’d gotten rid of it so as to avoid having to display it. They hung it in the window last year to surprise Dad for the final Christmas in the old house. That was the moment when it was observed that there would be no place for Ugly Santa when they moved. And that was also the moment when I, apparently awash in a delirious fit of Christmas spirit, said, “We have a bay window. We can take it.” And now we’ve got it. It’s casting a red glow so impressive on the living room that I am thinking we don’t really even need a tree in there any more.

Tacky Santa has got an abundance of personality, and as such, it has seemed like the other decorations in that room should also have a similar vibe. And those pillows were totally not cutting it.

Christmas mix-and-match pillows, at Polka Dot Cottage

So I dug into my stash and pulled out the Alexander Henry “Merry Christmas Santa” fabric I’d been hording. This was originally earmarked for replacement PJs, as the boys had outgrown the ones I made them six years ago, and I wasn’t all that happy with the fit of my own. I’d had big plans for a new round of matching Santa pajamas, but I’d been dragging my heels on that for so many years that I finally just said, “forget it! this fabric is becoming new pillows!”

Christmas mix-and-match pillows, at Polka Dot Cottage

Christmas mix-and-match pillows, at Polka Dot Cottage

And with that, new pillows were born.

The covers are done in the style of my Mix-and-Match Pillows (tutorial here, hand ebook here).

Christmas mix-and-match pillows, at Polka Dot Cottage

I covered the two ugly ones, and then I covered two more.

Reversible table mat, at Polka Dot Cottage

And then, just for kicks, I made a bigger (reversable) table cover than the one I had. Honestly, I don’t really love the way this came out, but I can live with it, since it’s mostly covered up anyway. If I had it to do again, I’d make it less scrappy, leave out the red panel, and not put on a binding. Maybe next year…

Christmas mix-and-match pillows, at Polka Dot Cottage

My goal with this room is to have an old-fashioned, slightly-tacky, Santa-centric, glittery vibe, and I think these pillows help quite a bit.

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Posted on 3 Comments

3 thoughts on “Pillow talk

  1. Love it! I may have to do this next year since I have a growing Santa collection. Happy Holidays!

  2. Wonderfully festive, Lisa… visitors to your home can be left in NO DOUBT as to whether your family celebrates Christmas 🙂 I love pillow covers (I refer to them as instant redesign) and pillows have exactly the right amount of focus to transform any room.

    Hope you and yours obtain all the Blessings of the Season!

  3. They look great. Maybe table cloth plain with santa border so you can see the festive bits on it? Happy christmas. x

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