Sweater Pillow DIY

A few days ago a sad thing happened. My very favorite sweater (and pretty much my only sweater at this point) decided to get a teeny tiny hold in it. Normally I would keep wearing it, but this hole happened to be right in the chest area, and showed my wonderful purple bra off to the world (I only have one bra right now too, boy do I need to go shopping!). I love this sweater, mostly because it is 3/4 sleeve. I genuinely hate long sleeves, and always roll them up, so this saves me a step! After much sadness I decided the sweater could no longer be worn and decided to throw it out.
Before I had even gotten it over my head I decided that it might be perfectly useable in some other way, and my mind decided that it should be made into a comfy cozy pillow cover so I can keep feeling it's warmth.

A few days later I tracked down some thread, a needle, and some scissors and went to work. I cut all the way across the sweater just under the arm pits so I had a tube top like thing. I also cut off the sleeves for use in a let project. Not sure what yet, but we will figure something out! I then turned it inside out and hand stitched the entirety of one side.
This would probably have gone faster if I had used my machine, but my white bobbin was missing and I did not have an empty one. So I sat and stitched while enjoying a nice glass of water and watching an episode of Pretty Little Liars.
I then turned it right side out, inserted the pillow, and carefully hand stitched all along the other side of the pillow.
It took about an hour altogether, but now I have a soft warm pillow perfect for the Holidays and cold weather.
Since it went so well, I grabbed a pillow whose cover had gone missing, and some green damask pattern fabric I had bought for Halloween and made up another little pillow.
They now both grace my favorite little red chair from Ikea (which needs a cleaning badly!). I imagine it will be the perfect little spot for sipping some Hot Cocoa this holiday season as I admire my Christmas tree and wait for my husband to get home late at night. It sure put me in a holiday mood, so I got out a garland that never made it into the Christmas storage and put it up as well. So now my house is slowly on it's transformation to a Holiday haven.

So What Do you think I should do with the Sleeves? I am thinking either some type of vase cover, or making them into rice bags. Any other suggestions out there?