upcycled bridesmaid dress pillow cover

Yes, you read that right. I cut up my bridesmaid dress to make a pillow. I knew I would never wear it again. No matter what someone tells you, you WILL NEVER wear your bridesmaid dress again. Sell it? I just couldn't.Its a beautiful Alfred Angelo dress, and we took forever picking them out, and I wanted to keep it somehow. Cut it up? It only took me 2 minutes to think about it. The first thing I made was the ruffle lampshade. As I picking the dress apart and deconstructing the top, I realized it would make a unique throw pillow for our bed. And since I wasn't spending any extra $, hubby was pretty okay with it. Although he did wonder how upset my mom would be...

Forward march! So, making this was actually pretty simple. The corset top was made to drape asymmetrically, which was kinda tricky, but not really. I just eyeballed it. I cut it to fit over a pillow I already had. I left the side seams in place, because, that means less work for me.
The only seams I had to sew were the top and bottom of the pillow. I salvaged some leftover fabric from another pillow cover I made from a dress and used it as a panel underneath the lacing of the corset so that the pillow I covered wouldn't show through.
So, here's the basic steps if you want to make your own.
1. Get a dress.
2. Take out the lacing ribbon. Cut the dress apart very, very carefully. There will probably be 2 layers if there is boning, try and take all that junk out.
3. Cut the top and bottom to trim, and leave the side seams that are original to the dress if you can.
4. Turn it inside out.
5. Cut a scrap piece that would peek out underneath all the lacing.
6. Pin the scrap piece at the top and bottom of the dress.
7. Pin all around--this can be tricky if you have thicker layers to sew through. Make sure you have a good needle, and go slow.
8. Turn the cover right side out; you can do this because the peek-a-boo panel that's under the lacing is not stitched close on the sides, only top and bottom.
9. Wrestle your pillow in through the gaps near the inner panel and lace it up!