Mending a dearly loved pillow

As most people know, quilters do not generally like mending.  I am no exception!  But when my husband came to me with his deteriorating little pillow that he got from our daughter, what was I to say.  It is deteriorating, but it is really special to him.  I forgot to take a picture of the top, but it has a saying on it that goes like this, Any man can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a DAD.  How could I refuse....I couldn't.

In the picture above, I am trying to show you the piping.  The green canvas fabric is so brittle and now very thin.  The picture below shows you just how bad the disintegration is.  The backing of the pillow is almost non existing.  The stuffing is only holding onto itself, with little strands of green thread....lol.

So, I took one of my husbands jeans that I saved for making jean quilts and cut a leg off.  I made the backing out of his jeans and then pulled a darker, thinner, stretchy jean fabric to make a new binding.  Running this already made pillow through the sewing machine was a choir, especially when I was trying to sew the binding, on both the front and on the back.  In the end I managed!  It may not be the prettiest job I've done, but it is done.

I really dislike mending, but I am glad I did it for hm.  He treasures this pillow and uses it daily for his neck when he reclines in his chair to watch tv.  This pillow is at least 20 yrs old!!  Let's see how much longer it will last now.

Take care everyone.