The silk purses (or my new-ish neckrolls)...

Remember those old daybed pillows?   Here they are after their "surgery".  They're in front on the bed.

I chose new fabrics for the pillows based on the 1850's antique album quilt on the bed.  I quite like the neck rolls now.  They are clean and the perfect size.  Best of all, there is no more lumpy stuffing. The old rolls from the day bed had removable covers but were too large for the bed.  So after removing the old shams, I unpicked the pillow and salvaged some of the batting that was used to stuff the old pillows and discarded the rest.  I unpicked the round fabric from one end and cut 2 inches in length from each pillow so that two neck rolls would fit across our antique bed (the previous owners had a carpenter widen the bed to queen size). I'll tell you the amazing bed story another time.  Then I stitched the round ends back on the tube halfway around (right sides together) and turned them right side out, leaving a hole to insert the new batting.  Next, a quick trip to the fabric store for batting on a roll, which I purchased for $8.00. I only needed 2 yards and it was on sale. Hooray!

I put the old batting inside the new, and stuffed it into the cushions.  As you can see in the photo above left, I turned the raw edges of the circle to the inside, basted them shut and then slip stitched the cushion together, enclosing the batting.  Neck rolls can be purchased at any linen store and they are fairly inexpensive or you can make your own inside pillow using scrap fabric. My New custom pillow inserts cost me only $8.00 for the batting as I used the old fabric again.  You can't beat that for value. Making the fabric covers is easy, quick, and great value for my time.

Another trip to the fabric store yielded some sale fabric for the removable covers.  It as my lucky day.  I made some tiny green piping with another new fabric and sewed it between the two print fabrics.
The piping cost just a few dollars, as I had the string in my stash.  For about $20.00 I got the pillows rebuilt and refurbished, and made entirely new covers and it only took a few hours.

I'm quite happy with the look and I like that I can remove the cases for laundering.  My husband loves his new neck roll for reading at night, and I have my eye on a woven indigo fabric for another set to match other quilts.  The Euro shams and down comforter cover are white Irish Linen, so changing out the quilts and pillows lets me switch up the bedroom color scheme with minimal effort and cost.

I love having matching pillows with my quilts!  It was a good day's work.

I'll be back with a tutorial for making pillow roll covers, if you're interested.   Check back for instructions.