Pillow Cover Tutorial

OK friends, today I am giving you picture overload! I wanted to share a super easy way to recover your throw pillows for each season. If you have a sewing machine and know how to sew in a straight line - I promise you can DO this! =)



First, here are my pillows, I covered them last winter and made the mistake of making the coverings permanent. After the fact, and after they got sorta grungy sorta fast, I wished I had made removable covers so they could be changed or washed at will.
So this fall I finally got smart and made removable pillow covers in this gorgeous deep orange color, sort of a plush suede fabric. Anyway, I put those away with my fall decor and was back to the light blue pillows.

Which could only mean one thing, a trip to my local discount fabric store was in order! They sell everything, EVERYthing, for $2.99 a yard - even the BIG bolts of home dec fabrics! So I picked out 2 co-ordinating fabrics, one in an olive green and one in a deep red. I was totally guessing that they would match well with my couches and I was right! The green is almost identical to my couch color!


Next, decide if you plan to wash your covers or not. For these, I knew I wouldn't. They'll only be out for about a month and they are dark colors anyway, so I'll take a chance that they hopefully won't get spilled on. And even if they did, the fabric was cheap enough I would be OK with it. If you DO want to wash them, make sure you buy fabric that is washable, and bring it home and wash it FIRST before you do anything else. Then, measure your pillows and determine about how long and wide you need your fabric to be.


Here's what I do ... These pillows were approximately 20-22 inches square. So my WIDTH measurement is going to be 22 + 2-3 extra inches for leeway. {You can always cut the excess off, but if you cut it too small, you might not be able to fix it later. Then, for the LENGTH, make it DOUBLE that 22x2 = 44 + some overage for the flaps and stitching. I did mine at about 52 inches length and it was probably a bit too much, but again, I like to be certain that it's enough. An easy way to figure it out is to take the length of fabric and wrap the pillow and overlap the edges a bit. There is a saying that goes 'always measure twice, cut once' ... in other words, you can't redo it once it's cut, so be sure to measure carefully a couple times before cutting your fabric.

So to recap - my piece of fabric is now 24 inches x 52 inches. Next, I sewed the edges of each end - NOT the long sides, only the 2 short sides. Just fold up the edges a bit and sew straight down the side. It should look like this ...

Then, I lay the GOOD side down, and flap the two ends over each other like this ...

See how the left side overlaps the right side a bit? You want that.

Next I want to measure to make sure that my final product will be the proper size to fit the pillows. As I said above, I want the final product to be 22 inches square, so I take my ruler and measure across to be sure it's 22 inches, if it's too short or too long, I can adjust how far it's overlapping until I'm sure that it's 22 inches across ...

Then, I pin all along both sides so that it will STAY 22 inches and won't shift when I start sewing. I pin a little further in so that I can sew without having to remove the pins as I go.

Hard to see in this pic, but here it is with both sides pinned.

Then I want to measure the opposite direction, so that I know where I should sew and again, so I make sure it will end up being 22 inches across. I use my ruler and a dark black pen and I mark where I want my stitch line to go on both sides ...

See how I'll be left with about an inch or so excess on each side? That is fine ... like I said above, better to be left with some excess than to have it turn out too short. The excess can either be cut off {later, after you have sewed!} OR, you can just leave it cause it will be on the inside of the pillow and no one will notice it anyway. {You can guess what I do.}

Now you're ready to sew!! Make a straight stitch all the way down both sides, following the dark black line you made for yourself.

And here it is all sewn - I know you can hardly see the thread except right at the end, but trust me it's there. Now you can remove your pins. Don't trim your excess YET! Wait until you make sure that the cover fits the pillow properly before trimming anything!

Next you're going to flip the pillow cover inside out so that the pretty side of the fabric will show ...

And this is how it will look once it's flipped.

See how the two ends overlap each other?

And now the fun part ... wrestling that pillow into the cover ... it can be something like wrestling an ornery two year old into a snowsuit, but it's worth it in the end!

At this point it's halfway in and you're thinking ... there is no way it will all fit! The second half is a bit trickier cause you have to get it smushed all up to get it under that bottom flap. Just keep squishing and smushing and it WILL fit! Then you need to do a little fluffing and adjusting after you've gotten it squished in there.

And voila! It's in!

And my oh my ... don't they look nice?!

I made two green and two red ... {sad thing is they look nicer than the beat up couches they're sitting on!}

And one last look ...

Now, I know this has been a very WORDY post, and you're probably overwhelmed, but TRUST me, it took me longer to type it all out and explain it than it did to actually make the pillows! This project should take between 30-60 minutes {for all 4!}.

Hope you enjoyed. If you decide to cover your pillows come back and let me know so I can check out your pics!

Oh yeah ... thought I'd include these little cuties too ... Christmas flower pins! Wouldn't they be so cute to wear on a black coat this Christmas season? I'm doing a craft fair on Saturday and hope to sell some of these along with LOTS of other homemade stuff I make. =)