Generally Creative: Bolsters for Bug's Daybed

The first thing we needed to transform my daughter's bed into a daybed were bolsters.

The comforter for the bed came from bed bath and beyond, it is a dark aqua blue with raised dots and it is super soft. Bug picked it out, she is a sucker for anything soft and snuggly.

What she really wanted for the bolsters were these two pillows that they also sold at BB & B.

And while they technically worked, the were expensive. $20 each and we'd need 4 of them so it would have been $80 just for the bolsters... plus it was too much of the same texture for my taste. Not to mention if we wanted to use them as the backing that would be another $60.

I bought 2 of them, which I'm returning now, just so I could see how they looked.

But at Joann's I found the perfect fabric to make our own bolsters for $4.99 yard. And I'd be able to use them for the backing pillow as well.

So - here we go...

Materials:

5 yards of fabric (to be used for bolsters & backing pillow)
3 bags of fiber fill
Thread
Scissors
Tape measure
Something to use as a circle template - though I show you how to make on on your own.
The ability to calculate the circumference of a circle based on diameter... or a link to a website that will do it for you.
Body pillow if you plan on making the backing pillow in addition to the bolsters.

Ok - first up... the circles for your end pieces of the bolsters.

There are 2 ways to do this.

Use a template - like a plate:
Or if you know the exact diameter you want for your circle you can cut them free hand this way:
Divide the diameter of the circle size you want by 2 to give yourself the radius.
Take a square of fabric slightly larger than the circle you want and fold it in half and then in half again.

With the folded edge at the top, place a tape measure at the fold and mark your radius at several points using the point as your fixed position.

Not sure if you can see the really small dots in the picture above but I figured it was worth trying.

Next, cut along your dotted line to create an arc:

Open and then you've got a circle:

Ok - so, however you cut your circles, cut them so that you have 2 per pillow.

Then take the diameter of your circle, in my case 9.5" and calculate the circumference of the circle so that you know how wide to cut the bolster fabric. Thankfully, for those of us who have blocked out our algebra lessons and don't have anyone around who does, they make websites like this one that will do the math for you.

In my case, that means I needed a piece of fabric that was roughly 29.84513" plus seem allowance by the width of Bug's bed, 42" for each of the bolster pillows. Next pin the fabric so that ends that are having the circle attached are open.

And sew... in my case, for these long seams, I had help:

Press the long seam open and keep the tube inside out.

Pin the circles to the open ends of the tube, with the right side in (if you've got one.)

Make sure on one end of the tube, to leave a gap so that you can turn the bolster right side out and stuff.

Sew the ends on the bolster and turn them right side out and then stuff them with poly-fil. My 2 bolsters that were 42" long took 3 bags total.

Pin the ends of the open end of the bolster and then sew shut.

Then jump around on them to try and get the lumpiness to go away. That is what I hate using poly-fil/fiber-fil instead of forms, but there are just sometimes when pillow forms aren't an option.

And there you go...

These bolsters ended up costing just under $30, are the exact size we wanted, add a different texture to the daybed and work really well - had we gone with the BB&B ones, we'd have spend $80.

Next up - the bolster for the back. I decided that I wanted something taller - and I realized, the perfect solution would be a body pillow:

I found a cute pillow case, that could work:

But, after looking at it, I decided I wanted all the bolsters to have the same fabric and use other fabrics for the toss pillows. So I just created a simple pillowcase out of the same fabric for the body pillow: