Monday, August 16, 2010

Pillows

I had too much to say on the subject of pillows for my last post.


We have been buying pillows often lately but cannot seem to find just the right combination of fluffy and firm. My favorite pillow ever was made with crushed foam, which can get packed into a harder ball, or left to loosely cradle your head. It was just what both of us were searching fruitlessly for. We have had a few pillow-squeezing trips*, but the pillows we bought would either compact quickly into headache-inducing lumps or deflate completely. (I have some opinions relating to pillows here, it seems.) I finally looked all over the internet for crushed foam pillows, and discovered that they can cost $120 each. Ouch. So I bought some crushed foam online, and made the pillows today. The foam was $23 with shipping for 2 1/2 pounds. It was enough for 2 pillows, possibly 3, depending on how full you like your pillow.
This is what the foam looks like:
I cut out four pieces of satiny fabric I had in my stash into pieces 22 inches by 30 inches, sewed up three sides, and stuffed them. The foam stuffing is a lot of different sizes, and occasionally there are hard bits that I picked out to keep the pillows fluffy. No one will lose an eye on these!
Then I sewed up the last side on my machine.
The stuffing travels through the air and has a lot of static in it, so cleaning up was a pain, but in the end it was worth it.
Tonight, we'll try them out, and add more stuffing if necessary.
Custom pillows for $23. Not bad!

*A note on pillow-squeezing trips: There is nothing like standing in the pillow aisle at Wal-Mart and taking down each pillow and methodically squeezing it to garner stares from strangers. Has no one ever tried squeezing the pillows they buy?

3 comments:

  1. Sorry--I'm commenting so johnny-come-lately, but I wanted you to know that my husband and I always try out a pillow before buying. It's quite amusing to me to see the looks on peoples faces as we get one pillow after another down on the floor and actually lay on it before we finally add it to the cart. ;)

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  2. That sounds like a great idea. However, I'm worried that security might come and kick us out. How bad do you have to be before WalMart security decides to escort you out? And, what a great story it would be !

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  3. I can one up you, I test the pillow by putting it down on the floor and laying on it just like I would at home. I'm sure people think I'm nuts but it has saved me many a return trip!

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