A Rockin Good Time, and A Plethora of Pillows

I inherited this rocking chair from my grandparents after they sold their home. I have fond memories of my Grandpa sitting in it in the living room - it was "Grandpa's chair", and if you were in it when he wanted to sit down, you got up, haha :)

He loved this chair, and now I'm so happy I get to love it too. It became mine a few years ago, but even then I had plans for it and knew exactly what its new purpose in life would be...our son's nursery rocker:

I wanted to soften it up a bit (you know, since I'll be nursing our baby and reading to him quite frequently in it, so comfort is key) so I added that seat cushion you see above. I had it on hand (bought it a few years ago) and it was a perfect fit for the wide seat.
I also pictured a back cushion for it but didn't want to pay the hefty price that's attached to a nice, tufted pillow back (the cheapest I came across was $45 for a 2 piece set from JC Penney but I already had the seat cusion and only needed the back).

So I set out to make my own less expensive version:

I bought all my supplies at JoAnn Fabric. I found a 2-inch thick foam remnant, batting, heavy duty upholstery thread, piping, 2 yards of white linen-like fabric, extra long sewing needles, colorful buttons (which I ended up not using for this project but plan to for another), a button covering kit, and my handy-dandy Heat n Bond - that stuff's MAGIC! :)

I set the foam piece on the back of the rocker and eyeballed its size. It was a bit tall...

...so I cut off about an inch and a half of it from the bottom:

Then, to give it a plusher feel (and cover all that bright green since my fabric was white and semi see-through) I laid it on my batting and cut out around it:

When I was done cutting, I had these two pieces:

And then I used craft fabric glue to adhere them to the foam:

I went all crazy on the glue :)

And I let it dry while I got to work on another part of the pillow project: The piping.

Since I don't have use of my sewing machine, I used the trusty Heat n Bond to make my piping.

I laid the piping thread out on my white fabric...

Then tucked a long sliver of Heat n Bond along the edge of the piping thread, and folded about a half inch of fabric over top it...

...then I used my iron to set the heat n bond and VOILA! I had custom piping for the edges of my soon-to-be pillow:

Here's what it looked like after I used more Heat n Bond to iron it onto my front piece of fabric for the pillow:

The corners were tricky :)...

And now, through the magic of the internet (I'll spare you the hours it took to measure, iron, cover the buttons and sew), I give you the finished, tufted rocking chair cushion!:

Here's a close-up of the tufting - it's my favorite part :)

And here it is 'styled', all decked out with a neutral pillow cover over the seat cushion, a bright & fun green pillow I made, and a navy blue striped throw blanket:

Also, see the vertical striped pillow on the toybox in the above photo? Yup, made that too, from this fabric I got and showed you in this post.

I used the navy fabric to make the crib skirt and the striped and green fabrics for pillow covers.

And while we're on the subject of pillow covers, I had been wanting a BIG pillow to be able to toss around (like throwing it on the floor during play time) and I wanted the fabric to be bold, fun and wild - after all, the nursery's theme has a jungle animals vibe :)

Cue this fabric remnant I got for 75% off at JoAnn's:

This stuff is quality home decor fabric. It's heavy duty - PERFECT for the rough and tumble days I can see in its future :) 

It was orginally $50 a yard (that's CA-RAZY!) but since it was an odd yardage left on the bolt (and I'm assuming maybe a discontinued fabric) it was priced at 75% off $37.49...I got this 3/4 yard of fabric for under $10! SCORE!!!!!

And it was just enough to cover this euro pillow I already had been using in the guest bedroom:

I love it!!

I threw it in the crib for now (don't worry, it's strictly decoration til baby arrives, then it gets the boot):

Oh, as for a cost comparison, I was able to make all the pillows in this post (plus a few more not seen!) for the same price it would've cost me to buy just the rocking chair set from Penney's....another reason DIY is oh so fly! ;)

I still owe you guys an updated rec room desk post, along with pictures of the finished nursery (it's DONE!). But in the meantime, anyone else on a DIY pillow kick? It's kind of addictive, right?...once you make one you can't stop! :)