DIY Pillow With My Dad's Vintage Military Blanket

$4.00
2 Hours
Easy
Before anyone goes bonkers because I’m cutting up a vintage wool blanket, let me first tell you the reasons for my doing so...
My Dad, was my very first hero and he was in the military, that makes me a military brat and today I’m a very proud Military wife. I remember blankets like this one in my youth and have a few from Mr. Mans in my own linen closet.


I cherish my memories of Dad using and having these heavy woollen grey blankets, since the beginning of my time. I asked Mom once if she minded me having them, she gladly gave them to me, saying, “they’ve been sitting in that linen closet since your Father stopped going on exercise”. That was over 35 years ago. There were two blankets and one of them was stained and didn’t come clean with a good old fashioned washing. When I lugged them home I didn’t have any idea what I was going to do with them, not until the Christmas season started to roll in that is.
One afternoon I was out shopping and I popped into Pier 1, while taking in all of the beautiful bits and pieces of that store, I spied some table decor, felt place mats… the idea struck right away. This pretty snowflake was going to be on my wool pillow. All Christmas decor was 20% off, so the $4 dollar price tag didn’t phase me. I bought one place mat and was excited to try out my idea.
I used a pillow form I bought from Ikea and measured the wool blanket to fit the form.
I made a VERY simple square pillow with an envelope opening at the back of the pillow and, that opening closes with velcro. Easy as can be!
When the simple pillow was made I ironed my snowflake place mat onto some double-sided infused webbing. I let that cool and used my x-acto knife to trim any extra webbing away from the snowflake. After it was all trimmed and pretty I peeled the paper backing off and I ironed it onto the newly made pillow envelope. I covered the flake with a tea towel and transferred it to the wool. Done and done…
Here is the finished pillow, sitting pretty on our porch bench. I just adore the way it turned out! This little pillow will come out every Christmas and take a place of honor, Dad is no longer with us but all of my memories and the things that were his surround me, it will be so very comforting and oh so special!
Laurie @ Vinyet Etc
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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3 of 36 comments
  • Teresa Teresa on Nov 16, 2016
    Great idea, to keep the memories close. Very pretty too. Teresa, Tennessee
  • Kim Ayers Kim Ayers on Apr 18, 2017

    What a beautiful way to honor your memory of your dad and the military life. It's a blanket that otherwise would have remained in a closet. I'm sure you smile every time you look at that pillow. Blessings to you and your family!!

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