Jennifer McManus really likes pillows, but storing them was becoming a problem. After opening her linen closet and being "attacked" by pillows falling out, she says, she decided to create Cotton + Co. in 2018.
"I decided right then and there that I wanted the option to change out my pillows without the hassle of storing an entire pillow," McManus says. "After sewing some pillow covers and enjoying the process so much, I opened the shop on Etsy, then Shopify."
McManus has been sewing for fun since her mother put her in sewing lessons as a child. "I love home decor, and pillows are the epitome of home decor essentials, so this shop was a nice collaboration between loving to craft and decorating," says McManus, who also works part-time as an occupational therapist in Coeur d'Alene.
Her pillow cover line features a range of fabrics, all of them washable. McManus is partial to linen. "It's classic and gets softer the more you wash it." Meanwhile, the "leather" covers are actually made from vinyl, McManus says. "So as long as you wash on cold and lay flat to dry, they should hold up really well."
The pillow covers close using an invisible zipper. "If I've done my job, customers really have to look to figure out which side of the pillow the zipper is on," she says.
Pillow covers start at $37 and are designed to fit standard pillows to take the guesswork out of buying inserts. McManus recommends goose down-alternative inserts (try Amazon). "They act like goose down and give a chop to the middle of the pillow, but you don't get any feathers trying to attack you when you use your pillow."
Visit cottonandcospokane.com.
