the space between

upcycle, repurpose and reinvent your space

  • about
  • aruba
  • key west
  • curacao
  • projects
  • house tours
  • privacy policy

11-11-11 hockey bag pillow

November 11, 2011

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Happy 11-11-11 everyone! This is an awesome day for many, many reasons. I would like to start with thirdly, my Driftwood Christmas Tree post is being featured by Jamie at The DIY Home Sweet Home Project today. WooHoo! This feature business is F-U-N, fun!

Secondly, the wonderful number 11 has been my favorite number for as long as I can remember. To have a whole day dedicated to the number is quite cool in my little opinion. AND mostest importantly, today is A-W-E-S-O-M-E (spelled out like a cheerleader hopping around with pom poms) because today is my dad’s 65th birthday. Happy Birthday Dad!!! For your birthday I got you a blog post. 😉  Well, I actually made you a pillow, hope you like it.

Unfortunately, (to some, but probably not my dad) the down side of being a beginner blogger is that I don’t have any before pictures. Frown. I actually cut this material out of a big ol’ hockey bag. When my mom came to visit us in February (Yes, I’ve had the bag hanging around for over 8 months and didn’t snap 1 pic, sorry!) we ordered just a few small things (read: too many large, awkwardly shaped things). We had these things shipped to her house to bring down with her. Darn those international shipping charges! It may or may not have been the new weed wacker that sent her looking for a bag big enough for all our loot. 😉  But, my dad has played ice hockey his whole life and he happened to have the perfect bag on hand. It was big enough for everything, small enough that the airline didn’t consider it oversized and he didn’t need it back. Thanks Dad! It was actually my handy, crafty mother who gave me the idea to make something out of it. Thanks Mom! 8 months later (just weeks before blogging, dang it) I went ahead and cut the bag.

No, of course I didn’t make the pillow then. I often work under the philosphy that if I start the project I will feel more pressure inspired to finish. My husband claims that the chair I’ve been meaning to reupholster for the past, oh, has it been 8 years now (holy crap that’s terrible, don’t remind him how long, he’s terrible with dates!) is proof that this train of thought is flawed. Whatever! After I found the chair put out for the garbage by one of our neighbors in Indianapolis (Yep, definitely at least 8 years ago, and 2 moves. Crap!) I promplty un-upholstered the chair in an effort to get me jump started on the re-upholstery project. Then…it…sat…and sat…and sat. 🙁 I have the material, I painted the structure of the chair, I know, I have no excuses. I actually stapled on the fabric for the seat and front of the back of the chair for him for his birthday this year. Quite the giver I am. 😉 This also means that this finely un-upholstered, unusable, currently unappealing chair made it on my essentials list when deciding what to bring to this little island. It made sense in my little mind at the time. 🙂

Anyway, onto projects that are getting done. 🙂  I didn’t do any pre-measuring when I cut the hockey bag to start making the pillow. I just cut bigger than I knew I would want the pillow. I’m such a thinker. 😉  Then I measured 4 inches up and down from the lettering and 4 inches out to the side from the outside of the red stripe.
I figured if I did this the same way for both sides they would end up the same size, and it worked. Phew! And, for all you wondering “Why wouldn’t she just cut them at the same time to make sure they end up the same size? Duh! The answer is that the material is really thick and rubberized on the back side so I couldn’t cut the two sides at the same time. The answer is NOT that I didn’t think of that, luckily for my ego. 🙂

There were a few spots on the material that needed mending so I just hand stitched them from the back side. Is it normal that my right index finger was bleeding after this step? (Didn’t think so!)
Then came the real sewing. Now, I do NOT fancy myself a sewer lady. I have a sewing machine, and it made the list of essentials when we moved down here, but that’s all the commitment I offer to the trade. Sounds similar to the commitment I offer the chair. 😉 I took an upholstery class maybe 5 years ago, you know, to learn how to reupholster the chair. Wow, I’m beginning to feel really bad about that stinkin’ chair. Sorry Joel!

I learned a few new things in the upholstery class. But, shortly after the class I thought I was going to be awesome and took home a small pillow of a friend of mine that had been destroyed by one of her dogs, thinking I was going to make it better than new and surprise her with this awesome resurrected pillow. It turns out, I had forgotten that you can’t start sewing something with corners ON the corner or you won’t be able to hand sew the last corner to look like the other corners that had been turned quite nicely with the sewing machine and the hand sewn corner will be all wonky. 🙁  Make sense? I gave the wonky pillow to my friend anyway, and she accepted it with a smile. Come to think of it, I don’t remember seeing it the house again after that. Remember that Jeni??? I totally should redo it for you.

Anyway, that lesson has clearly stuck with me since then. So I lined up my sides for the pillow inside out and pinned around the red stripes since I wanted to make sure they lined up:
Then I started sewing near the middle of the bottom (heading toward the closer corner), sewed all the way around and left about a 3 inch opening to stuff. This is a picture of the opening and my mad sewing skilz. You’re supposed to go forward-backward-forward when you get started, right?

Now, get your hand up in that opening and pull the pillow right side out. You may need to use something to help finagle the corners out as much as possible. I used a stick, anything that same shape (pen, pencil, butter knife, etc) would work. Focused pillow, blurry stick:
This is what she looked like ready to be stuffed. Does that caption conjure up visions of yourself at a Chinese Buffet ready to be stuffed, or is it just me?
Then, I cut open a pillow I already had (8 bed pillows made the move to Curacao. Have I mentioned we have a 1 bedroom? Geesh!) I stuffed to the density I wanted. TIP!!! Pulling apart the batting in small bunches (smaller than in the pic below) helps prevent a lumpy feeling in the new pillow.

You can see the opening for hand sewing near the center of the bottom of the picture above. Now, let the hand sewing begin. I would like to be able to say here that I used a whip stitch, or a loop stitch, or give any kind of helpful detail. But honestly, all I know for sure about this step is that there was a needle and there was thread and after about a glass of wine and half an episode of Survivor the opening was shut. And my fingers hurt and there may have been just a teensy bit more blood. All I want for Christmas is a thimble!

Yep, that’s a sneak peak of the infamous chair, and some totally awesome rental house tile. Don’t be jealous, we have that tile in most of the house – including the bathroom walls. Nice!

I may or may not have fallen out of love with the chair fabric at this point. Is that justification enough to continue to hold off on that project?

I didn’t think until after I had cut the material that I could make one of the envelope closure pillows described so well by Ashley at Domestic Imperfection here, but I felt confident that my dad was NEVER going to wish he had the ability to take the cover off to wash it. Trust me on this, we’re good with no way to wash it but spot cleaning that will only get done when I visit. 🙂

I LOVE how it turned out. I love the weathered, textured feel and look of it. I love that it once was something else that was useful to my dad and now will be something meaningful. I love that I didn’t totally screw it up. And I love that it was absolutely FREE and at the same time very thoughtful. 🙂

AND I love that it’s 11-11-11 and I love my father! I know he will love it because I can do no wrong in his eyes made it special for him from something that already had meaning to him. Love you dad! Happy Birthday!!! XO

So, what do you think? What have you re-purposed from one thing into something totally different?

Just for fun…remembering picking up that chair from our neighbors in Indy got me thinking about our very first house. I wonder how she’s doing today? (Yes, I view everything without a gender in the world as a female.)

 Please check out here, here and here to see where I will be sharing this post around the blog world.

« 2 moments of underwhelming intelligence
map it out, dress it up, cross your fingers »

Comments

  1. Deanna says

    November 11, 2011 at

    This one really made me chuckle. Great idea! You’re slowly beginning to inspire me. Perhaps today I will look for my sewing machine 🙂 ox Happy Birthday Uncle Gene!

    • Karah @ thespacebetweenblog says

      November 11, 2011 at

      I have a great chair project you could start with! 😉

  2. Maggie says

    November 12, 2011 at

    Would luv for my readers to see this awesome idea, will you please join our weekly party at
    http://www.passionatelyartistic.com/2011/11/thanksgiving-showcase-tutorial-with.html
    have a great crafting weekend!
    Maggie
    http://passionatelyartistic.com

    • Karah @ thespacebetweenblog says

      November 13, 2011 at

      I’m always up for a party! Thanks for the invite Maggie!!

  3. Kimberlee says

    November 12, 2011 at

    Love the pillow! What a great way to use an ‘old’ bag. I have several bags that I would love to use this way. I never seem to use them as bags, LOL! Thanks for linking up with FiF, and for adding our button to your party list.
    ~Kimberlee, The Spunky Diva

    • Karah @ thespacebetweenblog says

      November 12, 2011 at

      Thanks for the comments Kimberlee! I love how you spell your name. 🙂

  4. Sue Reincke says

    November 12, 2011 at

    I’ve never seen your first house! Awww!! Miss you and tell your dad happy birthday from me!

  5. Mom 4 Real says

    November 14, 2011 at

    What a fantastic idea! Definitely going to have to steal this one!

    Jessica @ Mom 4 Real

    • Karah @ thespacebetweenblog says

      November 14, 2011 at

      Thanks!

  6. AllieMakes says

    November 17, 2011 at

    That is fantastic! Great job!
    Thanks for linking up to Making It With Allie this week! I can’t wait to see what you have for next week!
    AllieMakes.Blogspot.com

    • Karah @ thespacebetweenblog says

      November 18, 2011 at

      Thanks Allie! Thanks for hosting, too!

  7. Jamie says

    November 18, 2011 at

    It looks great. Thank you for sharing my button.
    Jamie
    http://diyhshp.blogspot.com/
    P.S. I have another giveaway going on right now. Would love you to stop by and check it out.

    • Karah @ thespacebetweenblog says

      November 18, 2011 at

      Thank you Jamie!

  8. Jennifer says

    November 23, 2011 at

    Very cool idea!
    Thanks for sharing at Show & Share!

  9. Linda @ it all started with paint says

    April 24, 2012 at

    What a wonderful present for your dad! And now I must ask, how is that chair doing these days?

    🙂

    Linda

Trackbacks

  1. Monday Matinee – Bottle It Up « the space between says:
    November 14, 2011 at

    […] continue it, right?!?!  Or will it become another chair project like this one I introduced you to here?  Who […]

  2. Map it out, Dress it up, Cross your fingers « the space between says:
    November 16, 2011 at

    […] my “move essentials” choices.  Score!  (Some of my questionable choices can be found here.)  Which column do you think this guy is […]

  3. Sea Urchin Snow women « the space between says:
    November 28, 2011 at

    […] cute little sea urchin snow women (I admitted to viewing the entire non-gendered world as feminine here).  They fit right in with what seems to be becoming my handmade coastal Christmas […]

  4. One Hit Wonders « the space between says:
    November 30, 2011 at

    […] random beads made the essentials list for the move here. Other items on said list were discussed here and here.  I had pinned this inspiration picture from […]

  5. The First 30 « the space between says:
    December 2, 2011 at

    […] a dicta-phone, an exacto knife and a thimble.  The exacto knife and thimble I mentioned here and here, the dicta-phone would make it easier to get my thoughts out when I’m driving on these […]

  6. Mapped, Dressed and Done. « the space between says:
    December 22, 2011 at

    […] even put them back in the dresser to use.  I just used this always essential chair (more on that here) to toss organize what would be in the dresser.  Apparently even if I have to step over a […]

  7. Monday Matinee – For the Love of LL Bean « the space between says:
    December 26, 2011 at

    […] 2 years ago.  If you ask my husband I made all kinds of interesting choices.  Some were mentioned here, here and […]

  8. Hockey Bag Pillow says:
    December 27, 2011 at

    […] especially for parents and grandparents who seem to have everything they need or could even want. Karah from The Space Between made her dad a special gift for his 65th birthday this past November. It all started with an old […]

  9. 2011 Shout Outs! « the space between says:
    December 28, 2011 at

    […] {Hockey Bag Pillow} – The bag was definitely road kill before it became a pillow. […]

  10. End of Year Organization « the space between says:
    December 30, 2011 at

    […] that tile.  Good.  Ness.  I told you here we had it everywhere, even the walls weren’t safe from the ambitious tiler.  :/  This wall […]

  11. Friday Features! « the space between says:
    January 27, 2012 at

    […] can TOTALLY relate, says the girl with the 8 year old reupholstering project … more on that here).  But, check out the beautiful fabric she is working with here.  And give her some moral support […]

  12. imperfection is the new black « the space between says:
    February 20, 2012 at

    […] shelf in my new one screw gallery wall every time I walked in the room.  Or, I might have finished re-upholstering that chair by now…8 years later. Or, I might not have gotten disproportionately excited when I bought […]

  13. Is that a white wash you’re wearing? « the space between says:
    February 21, 2012 at

    […] my husband gives me a hard time about bringing on our island adventure.  There may be a still un-upholstered chair and some yarn lying around. […]

  14. our space {picking it} « the space between says:
    March 5, 2012 at

    […] with our awesomely cheap rent more than make up for the lack of more bedrooms or desire for nicer tile or even an extra bath for guests.  So much so that we negotiated a reduced rent with our landlord […]

  15. give peace a chance « the space between says:
    March 6, 2012 at

    […] for sure, is the tile in this little house… But the thing with it is…I can’t change […]

  16. on the road again the space between says:
    January 18, 2013 at

    […] has yet to become a project?  That one will definitely need to be negotiated … although, the still-not-reupholstered chair is for sure coming along.  Who knows, Key West might be her saving grace. […]

  17. how to dry brush {white wash} the space between says:
    April 24, 2014 at

    […] my husband gives me a hard time about bringing on our island adventure.  There may be a still un-upholstered chair and some yarn lying around. […]

  18. it's like Christmas up in here - the space between says:
    May 26, 2015 at

    […] place, and we should have known that from our experience in Curacao.  Doh!).  In Curacao is was that infamous chair that is still not yet reupholstered, but safely hiding in a storage unit in Miami. […]

Copyright © 2025 · custom theme design by this bold girl · Built on the Genesis Framework 

  • pinterest
  • facebook
  • instagram
  • rss