No-Sew Pillow Covers

TitlePictureSo the throw pillows around our house have been doing their job just fine for the past 6 years, but I’ve wanted to spice them up for a few years now since I’ve really defined my “style”.  However…just in case you haven’t shopped for throw pillows lately…they are expensive!  When you have as many throw pillow worthy surfaces as I do, paying an average of 12-20 bucks PER pillow just doesn’t fit into my budget…especially if it cuts into my coffee and book budget which lets be real…is non-negotiable.  Any who, the next option was to look for pillow covers, so I took a gander.  This was more depressing.  If they were cheap, then they were ugly or MORE plain than my original pillows.  If they were cute, then they were just as expensive or more expensive than buying new pillows…ugh.  Then I got it in my head to make new pillow covers.  I mean I had made some pillow cases for our bed and they were pretty cheap.  So I went to the Master Seamstress…erm I mean mother.  By Master Seamstress, I mean she can turn the machine on, re-thread, AND change the thread color out.  My sewing skills include pushing the pedal down in an even fashion, sewing in a straight-ish line, AND avoiding catching my fingers under the needle…I know…impressive.  Anyways, I asker her if a pillow cover would be too difficult and we decided that as long as the pattern was simple, we shouldn’t have any problems.

Supplies Needed

Supplies Needed

I found an easy guide here for measuring and setting up the covers that was VERY helpful.  Next was to find the fabric.  I hit a great sale at JoAnn’s and found some ADORABLE fall prints for a steal!  At this price, I could afford to cover all my pillows for every season for a fraction of the cost of replacing the pillows!  For reference, 3 yards of 43″ fabric covered a 24in pillow, 18 in pillow, and 17in pillow.  I also had some left over to use as a runner for my hutch!

I had all the supplies, but getting together with Mama can be hard to do sometimes with our crazy schedules.  And lets be honest, I should not be trusted to operate a sewing machine by myself. I had heard of something called Liquid Stitch so I decided to give it a whirl!

Lets get down to business!  I will be giving VERY general directions since everyone’s pillow sizes are different…also because I used the “folding method.”  Folding method = Mad’s term for wrapping a pillow once around, leaving about 6 inches for the “envelope” structure, and cutting a semi-straight line.

Cut the fabric

Cut the fabric

Envelope Allowance

Envelope Allowance

Wrap the pillow

Wrap the pillow


Here we go!
1. Wash fabric (without fabric softner) and dry.  Iron fabric
2. Lay fabric flat and place pillow on top of it.
3. Fold the fabric over the pillow, leaving about 6 inches extra in length to create the “envelope” opening.
4. Cut the Fabric
 – Make sure to leave about 1-2 inches of extra fabric on the edges to be liquid stitched together
5. Turn the fabric so the patterned side is facing up at you.
6. Fold the edges inward to create the “envelope”
7. Fold over and liquid stitch a small hem so the raw edges aren’t showing on the back.
8. Liquid stitch the top and bottom edges
9. Let it dry – the instructions say let dray for 30 minutes, but I let mine set for a couple hours
10. Turn inside out from the envelope opening.
11. Stuff pillows in

12. Feel accomplished 🙂


Turn the fabric pattern up and fold a small hem for the envelope seam.

Turn the fabric pattern up and fold a small hem for the envelope seam.

Fold over the last seam to create the envelop

Fold over the last seam to create the envelop

Liquid Stitch the outer edges. DO NOT STITCH THE MIDDLE!

Liquid Stitch the outer edges. DO NOT STITCH THE MIDDLE!

Finished

Loading

2 comments

Leave a Reply