A Thrifted, Handmade, Valentine's Day (Star Wars Edition)

One of my goals for the year is to do more handmade gifts.  Along with that I really want to try to use at least partially recycled materials or at least materials I already have on hand.  I've had a couple projects I've wanted to do for a while and decided to take the opportunity of Valentines Day to complete them.  My boys are especially into Star Wars  hearing a two year old talking about Chewbacca and R2D2 is kind of the cutest thing ever).  Without really meaning to, it became a Star Wars sort of holiday.

For Toby, I spotted this ADORABLE Chewbacca Softie Pattern on Draw Pilgrim.  For the thrifted portion I found a pair of used brown corduroy pants in good condition.  I had to buy the stuffing and the felt for the face but all the other notions I already had on hand.

For Josh, I've been meaning to make him an Ipad lap pillow since Christmas.  I've seen a few pictures floating around the internet and just sort of made up a design.  The pillow form is thrifted (seriously, have you seen the price of new pillows?) but it was actually still new with the tag.  I tried in vain to find a used Star Wars sheet or throw to make the case out of but to no avail.  I finally had to suck it up and go to the fabric store.  They had several Star Wars prints to choose.  I found out later that they had never carried Star Wars fabric before and had only had it for a few weeks.  What a lucky find!

So here's the final product.  I'm happy with how they turned out.  I left the sash off of Chewbacca because I think Toby would have just pulled it off anyways.  Did I save money going the thrifted route?  I think so overall.  Definitely on the pillow.   I'm not sure what corduroy yardage is going for these days so I'm not sure if I saved much there.  If nothing else I have a sense that I reused something already made rather than using something new for new's sake.


May everyone have a day full of love!