I just LOVE pillows! I have added so many pillows to our bed or guest bedroom that you could just dive into the wonderful fluffiness and be surrounded by comfort! Comfort is important! You can easily take a nap – naps are an awesome thing! You could support yourself wonderfully while reading a book or watching our favorite show! 

Beautiful Bolster Pillows

Bolster Pillows are amazing! These wonderful pillows add perfect comfort for neck rests or back support or between your knees for wonderful alignment. They’re pretty on your bed or at the base of a chair too! Finding one that you love that will enhance your bedroom’s decor may be a little hard. Why not just make one of your own! You can determine the length and width!

That’s just what I did! I wanted a lovely nearly bed-width bolster for our newly redecorated guest bedroom. I had leftover fabric from the curtain I made for the close – LOVE this pink fabric with golden polka-dots! I had just enough to make this bolster! 

What is a Bolster Pillow?

By definition, a bolster pillow is a long, thick pillow placed under other pillows for support. It is a long, narrow pillow for back, arm support and for beauty.

Form or Filling

You can find various sizes in bolster forms. This makes life easy for you, if you want. You CAN fill your own bolster with filling. If you’re concerned that your filling may not be even or may look lumpy, you can line your bolster with batting as you’re making it. This could give additional support and a smoother appearance. I chose to fill mine since I was creating a custom length for my bolster. You can find forms on Amazon, Joanns, Hobby Lobby and such.

How I Made My Bolster Pillow

I’ll share the step-by-step process I took to make my bolster pillow. You can either create your own – custom or choose to make one with a form. You can even find one at a thrift store and recover it! You know I love recovering or slipcovering pillows!

Step-By-Step 

• Determine your size and width – or measure your bolster form. Mine is 45 inches long and 5 inches wide. Many bolsters are 7 to nine inches wide
• Select your fabric – a medium home decor weight is perfect. You want it to be comfortable
• Cut Three pieces of fabric for your bolster: 1 the length plus 1 inch (mine 46″ long) the width of the largest piece depends upon your diameter width – since mine is 5″ the width of the long piece is 6″; 2 circles cut out for your diameter – (mine 6″) The easiest way to do this is to find a salad or small plate that meets the need for your size 
• Fold over the length of your bolster meeting your ends together – pin. Sew a half inch seam from end to end lengthwise. 
• Pin one of the fabric circles to the reverse side of the now long tube of fabric. Make sure you match the edges and pin together. Sew carefully making sure you keep the seam at 1/2 inch. You’ll then make notches along the fabric circle now sewn to the tube. 
• Sew the other end on – only leave over 1/2 of the seam open so that you can fill. If you insert a form – do so now and hand sew the final end in.
• Turn the tube inside out. Either fill with form, or begin to stuff with pillow stuffing. I worked a bit at a time smoothing out as best as possible as I went. My bolster is not perfectly smooth.
• If you want a perfectly smooth bolster: use heavier weight fabric; use an insert; OR before you sew the tube sew batting measured the same length of the bolster. Just come about 1/2 inch short of the width so that when you sewing the circle ends on you won’t have too much difficulty. Turn the fabric right side out again – fill as in the previous step.
• Hand sew the remaining of the seam turning the unfinished end in as you’re sewing.

There you go! Your own custom-made bolster!

As you can see…I love pillows! I love the beauty they add to a room’s decor and the comfort they add is wonderful! Where do I find pillow? Those shown here: the Pillow Shams are DIY, the two pillows before came from Aldi (yes! Aldi), The Pillow with the embroidery came from the fabric warehouse and the one in front came from an Etsy store. Another resource I love is thrift stores. You can find amazing pillows at various sizes – they are easily transformed with pillow slipcovers.

Here’s a PDF to help you make your own Bolster.