how to make a kids' pillow bed {the easiest & cheapest way} - It's Always Autumn

I made a pillow bed for each of my two youngest kids. The main living area of the house we’re renting is all laminate flooring, so these pillow beds make a cozy spot for them to lounge around together.

They sometimes fold the pillow up on themselves and rest them against a wall to create a little “chair”:

They even turn them on end and use them as a “fort”:

The secret to a cheap & easy pillow bed is a twin size flat sheet. Walmart sells them in a wide range of colors for $5 or $6 each. They also sell basic pillows for $2.50 each, making a 5 pillow bed under $20. It’s a perfect handmade Christmas gift.

Start by laying out your sheet on a flat surface right side down (a table is easier than the floor). Your sheet should be 66 inches wide by 96 inches long. You’re going to fold in each side along the dotted lines in the diagram below. You want the final width of the pillow bed to be about 27 inches, so if your sheet is exactly 66 inches wide, you’ll fold in 19.5 for each side. (The sheets I bought varied a little in width – so I just adjusted how much I was folding in to get a final width of approximately 27 inches.)

This diagram shows what the sheet will look like once folded. The right side was folded in first, then the left side, which overlaps the right. The overlap means we won’t have to add any velcro to keep the pillows in place.

Pin the sheet together across the top and bottom. Then you’ll want to pin 4 more lines, each approximately 19 inches apart. It would be easiest to mark these lines with tailor’s chalk or something similar. It’s not necessary that they are exact, just try to space them as evenly as you can. Use lots of pins!

Take the sheet to your sewing machine and sew a line of straight stitching along each row of pins, backstitching and the start and end. I found it was easiest to sew one end first, then roll the sheet from that end up to the next row of pins, then sew that row and roll again. This kept the sheet from getting all bunched up as I sewed:

It only takes 6 seams, and you have a pillow bed cover ready to go! There will be 5 sections that are each much like a pillow sham. Stuff a pillow into each section, and you’re done.

Original article and pictures take http://www.itsalwaysautumn.com/2014/12/09/make-kids-pillow-bed-easiest-cheapest-way.html#_a5y_p=3402048 site