Makeshift Bolster

Part of our spontaneous “vacation day” included separating the four girls into two rooms.  Which meant bunking two of the beds to accommodate a smaller space. 

Since we could no longer drape their colorful quilts at the foot of their beds due to the pesky ladder, I decided to repurpose them as bolster pillows instead. 

I didn’t want to spend any money on bolster inserts, so here’s what I did…

I used an old king size pillow and grabbed some string.

Then summoned two available children to hold down the ends after I folded it in half.

I tied the string around one end pretty tight and made a knot.

Then I wound the string over and over around the folded pillow.

Until it resembled a giant grub. 

I then laid out a twin quilt (mine is cut in half, but you don’t have to do this). 

At the bottom edge, I started rolling the quilt tightly around the pillow.

Once rolled up, I safety-pinned the seam in the middle to hold it secure.

Using string, I tied each end as tight as I could.

At which point, the pillow took on the form of a snazzed-up Tootsie Roll.  Much better than a grub.

Then came the most expensive part of this project.

$6 for a roll of satin ribbon from Michaels. 

A pretty bow for each side finishes the look.