How to Make a Decorative Wall Hanging Out of a Pillowcase

Nearly everyone seems to be watching their wallet these days. One excellent way to save money is to use inexpensive or old household items to make new objects. This project involves using a pillowcase, dowel rod and yarn to make a decorative wall hanging. Children particularly like making this project. This project will give you the opportunity to make fashionable decorations for a child's room at a reduced price.

My children and I have made many of these wall hangings. In addition to being inexpensive the project will give you a chance to be very creative. With optional items like beads, fabric paint, sequins, dyes or charms it is possible to create nearly endless variations of this project which can help you keep several children occupied at once.

To begin this project procure a pillowcase. You can purchase one new or scout thrift stores to find one you like. You can often find discounted pillow cases at thrift stores that have popular children's cartoon characters on them. You can then decorate the pillowcase as you see fit such as tie-dyeing it, stamping it, ironing on decorative patches, sewing on beads or charms, or drawing on it with fabric paint.

If you have used dye, paint, glue or any other wet ingredients lay the pillow case flat to dry before continuing with the project. Once the case is dry use a pair of scissors to cut a one inch long slit in both side seams. Make your cuts just below the bottom seam.

Next take a narrow dowel rod, roughly one inch in diameter, and thread it through the slits you made in the pillowcase's side seams. Dowel rods are inexpensive and easy to find at your local hardware store or in the art's and crafts section of most discount stores.

Next cut roughly a 2 foot long string of yarn in a color complementary to your wall hanging. Tie the ends of the string to the ends of the dowel rod. If your wall hanging is particularly heavy (I.e. has a lot of beads or charms, etc.) then you may wish to repeat the process with several strings of yarn in complementary colors.

Once you are finished your wall hanging is ready to be hung up. You can use a screw or a nail but I have found that these fray the string quickly, my best results were achieved when using a hook.