Easiest Pillow Cover You'll Ever Sew - A Tutorial

Just recently, a friend asked me to remake drapery panels into a valance for her bay window, and if there was enough fabric leftover from the panels, she also wanted some pillows. She wasn't looking for anything fancy, and she certainly wasn't looking to pay the price that the custom drapery maker was going to charge her for each pillow! As it turned out, I had just enough fabric leftover after making four valance panels to also make four 16 inch pillows, and today I'm going to show you how to sew the easiest pillow covers ever! I'm serious - the absolute easiest! All you have to sew is four straight lines! Keep reading and you'll see...

I made 16 inch pillows, but this method will work for any size pillow form you want to cover. So here's the formula:

Pillow width + 1 inch = fabric width
Pillow length + pillow length + 8 inches = fabric length

So for these 16 inch pillows I needed my fabric panels to be 16 + 1 inches wide, so 17 inches wide, and 16 + 16 + 8 inches long, so 40 inches long.

I used one solid piece of fabric leftover from drapery panels for each pillow, but you could use a piece of an old curtain, tablecloth, or even strips or pieces of old jeans or other sturdy clothing sewn together, or leftover pieces of upholstery from having a chair or couch reupholstered. Be sure to ask for the leftovers since you paid for them anyway!

First, press your fabric panel and turn over each short end 1 inch, then 1 inch again and press the folds. Top stitch close to the first fold through all 3 layers of fabric on each end of the panel.


This is what the short edge will look like after stitching along the first fold.


Lay fabric right side up and mark the center of one long edge. Place a ruler next to the edge with the 8 inch mark (or half the pillow length) of the ruler at the center mark on the fabric.


Bring short end from left towards center so fold is on the 16 inch (or pillow length) mark on the ruler.


Then bring short end from the right towards center so fold is on the zero mark on the ruler.


The two hemmed short edges will overlap each other by about 2 inches in the center.


Pin the raw edges. Stitch a 1/2 inch seam along both sides. Do not stitch folded edges.


Turn pillow cover right side out, using a crochet hook or other object to poke out the corners. Slide pillow form inside one half of the cover.


Then bring other half of pillow cover over the rest of the pillow form, smoothing out the form and the cover and making sure the corners of the form are in the corners of the cover.


And there you have the absolute easiest pillow cover you will ever sew! One piece of fabric, one pillow form, a little measuring and pinning, four straight lines on the sewing machine, and you're done!

Now that your sewing confidence has been boosted just a bit, head on over to my Good Eggs Giveaway and put your name in the Easter Basket for a chance to win my Petite Point Flowers Spring Table Runner, or the pattern and charms to make your own! The giveaway ends Sunday evening so get hopping or you'll miss it!

Happy Stitching!

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Remembrance Pillows made for a friend

This past summer, my friend Debbie's mother Grace passed away after a long and productive life filled with lots of family, friends, faith and love. Debbie decided to save a few articles of her mother's clothing, and had kept them in a bag just waiting to decide what to do with them. She recently told me about her idea to make something from the pieces she had saved, and she asked if I would be interested in the project. Of course I was, and here is what Grace's four tops have become...


This is the front of two of the Remembrance Pillows...


...and this is the back of the same two pillows. I cut the pieces for the pillow backs out of the section of each top where the buttons or zipper openings were so that the covers could be taken off and washed if necessary. You can also see that the front patch pocket on the blue flowered denim top was left in place as well.


Here are the fronts of the other two 12 inch pillows...


...and here are the backs of the same two. The purple top was a cozy zippered jacket, so I left the zipper intact just like the buttons on the other pillows.


Using small pieces of fabric from the shirts, I cut out heart shapes in three different sizes and appliquéd two of them onto each pillow top with hand-stitching.


I tried to do each one a little bit differently from the others so each pillow would be unique.


Grace was a very tiny lady so I was only able to make four 12 inch pillows, one for each of her daughters. But with the leftover fabric, I was able to make 3 other very small pillows with hearts on them as well. These small pillows Debbie will give to some of Grace's grandchildren.








The white blouse had the prettiest white lace on the sleeves, so I made two little sachet bags by cutting about 4 inches from the end of each sleeve and stitching the bottom edge closed. Then I ran narrow ribbon through the lace to make drawstrings. These little bags could be filled with nice smelling soaps or potpourri and hung in a closet or placed in a drawer.

What a nice way to memorialize a loved one, making something old and used new again. I think Grace would be happy to see a few pieces of her clothing used in this way.

Happy Stitching!

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Daybed Cover and Pillows

I have one more fabulous 'win' to show you soon, but that will have to wait. Today I thought I would give you a quick peek at a commission project I did a few weeks ago for Nancy K. She needed a daybed cover and some pillows for her basement family room that is used a lot by her children and their friends for hanging out and having sleepovers and such. It had to be durable and it had to be plain, not too frilly and girly, since she has a teenage son and three girls using it.

We went shopping and settled on a rich maroon cotton duck cloth for the cover - very durable and lends itself nicely to a tailored look, besides being very gender neutral. Then we picked out some fun fabrics for pillow cases and pillow covers.

After taking measurements and working out the design in my head, then re-working it on paper several times, I rearranged my sewing space so that my ping-pong table could hold the weight of all that heavy fabric while I sewed. Then after several days of some serious sewing, this is what I came up with...


It's a tailored daybed cover made just like a fitted sheet underneath with elastic on all four corners, and then on the two ends and the front, it has panels that go right to the floor to hide the springs and the trundle bed. I'll work up a tutorial on how to make this fitted daybed cover with elastic corners soon.


And here's a quick peek at the four pillowcases along the back which I made using the same method I used for the backyard fun pillowcases, only I made the trim piece a bit wider to show off the fabric a little better.

Nancy had three old throw pillows that didn't really match anything in her house anymore, so I made covers for those to match her new daybed set. Those are the three pillows in the front. I'll be sharing a tutorial on how I gave new life to these old pillows soon as well.

I've been busy working on several other commission projects and still have more to do, so I'll be showing those very soon, along with some simple tutorials so you can do them too!

Happy Stitching!

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9 Patch Pillow Top Ready to Quilt

After I hand pieced the 9 squares together for the Children's Quilting Class at the library, I cut a piece of muslin about 4 inches larger on each side than the block, and a piece of batting just a little larger than the block.


Each of the children in the quilting class will receive, among other necessary items, a similar piece of muslin and batting for the blocks that they piece.


Then I basted the three layers together using a contrasting color of regular sewing thread. I started in the middle and worked toward each corner first. Then I basted each side about an inch away from the edge. This should be enough to hold the layers together while I quilt them.

I have purchased almost all of the supplies I will need for this class. The only big thing left for me to get is a wooden hoop for each of the participants. I am hoping to get six 12 inch wooden hoops, but my local Michael's store has been out of stock for several weeks now. I'll be making some calls to my not-so-local A.C. Moore and Joann Fabrics to see what I can find.

I love preparing for classes like this and thinking about how this kind of experience might influence the future of these kids. Did you ever take a crafty class at your local library or somewhere similar when you were a child? How did it influence your future?

Happy Stitching!

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Fun Fabric for Children's Quilting Class

Last summer I held a 4 session embroidery class at our local library and the children who attended really seemed to enjoy learning a new skill and putting it to good use.

I have been invited back again this summer and the project I have chosen to teach this time is a 9 patch quilted pillow.

Wanna see the fun fabric I picked out for this project?

The four print fabrics in the lower part of the picture were part of my fun purchase recently when I was looking for black and whites for my sister's pin cushion bag. The other five fabrics are from my stash. I cut 5 1/4 inch squares of each fabric, so after hand stitching them into a 9 patch, the finished block will be 14 3/4 inches. After quilting and stitching to the pillow back, this should be just perfect for covering a 14 inch pillow form.

Now the only question is ... can 6 children, ages 10 to 12, get all this done in four 1.5 hour sessions? We'll see!

More pictures of the sample in progress to come!

Happy Stitching!

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The Last of the Tote Bags and Pillows -- Finally!

Our school's annual Holiday Fair is now over and it appeared to be quite successful with many of the booths selling out and lots of people moving through all day long. It was quite cold, in the 20s all day, and windy too which I think kept some people away, but at least it wasn't raining or snowing. I spent the day from about 8 in the morning until about 6 in the evening manning the 'Handcrafted Items donated to the school' booth, along with another lady who spent a good long time knitting and crocheting blankets, hats, sweaters, mittens and scarves for the fair. I found out at the end of the day that our booth brought in close to $700, with $365 of that coming from the tote bags I had made. I was quite happy with that result, considering many people don't have extra money to spend these days.

Here are a few last pictures of this marathon fabric-tote bag-pillow-sewing series before I get back to my regularly scheduled programming.


Our booth was just inside the doors to the big gym so everyone who came in had to go by us before getting to the other crafters' booths. These are the pillows I had made. Everyone commented on them, but none sold. I was a little surprised at that, but again people just weren't as free with their spending as in past years.


This is the long line of tote bags ready and waiting for the shoppers. I had set this up the afternoon before the fair opened to the public and was able to make three more that night, so here they are...


This one turned out to be one of my favorites. The outside fabric is so soft and I love the design since it reminds me a little of leaves but not quite. The neutral colors are nice too.


This is another one made out of that fabulously funky fabric with a soft shiny gold fabric lining.


And this little one was made from small pieces of fabrics leftover after making other bags. The bottom is actually square and measures about 6 x 6 inches. It would make a nice purse.


And look at the pool table now! You can actually see it! Whew! After Thanksgiving, all this fabric will be neatly stowed away in totes and stored at the school for anyone else who would like to sew things with it, or for the art teacher to use for projects, or for the drama teacher to use as backdrops or costumes, or for the teachers to use for their bulletin boards or what-have-you.

The lady who donated all this fabric to the school said that it was all top quality upholstery fabric selling for $40 to $100 a yard and she was very pleased to see what had been done with it. I was so happy that she was happy with my work.

This was a crazy week of pretty intense sewing at a pace that I could never keep up for too long. But it was so nice being able to have so many choices of such nice fabric to make things for the school. Now, however, it is time to get back to normal family life, actually cooking meals and maybe even doing a bit of cleaning, all of which has been neglected by me in the past week. Thankfully my husband is very understanding and generous in his willingness to help out. I even plan to get back to some of the projects I had started before acquiring all this fabric. So be sure to check in this coming week to see just what I will pick up first.

Right now I think I will just go put my feet up and maybe crochet for a while.

Happy Stitching!

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Even More Pillows!

I'm not sure how much more of this non-stop sewing my fingers can handle! I've come to the conclusion that working with upholstery fabric all the time must require wearing some kind of special gloves! This stuff is heavy duty and hard on the fingertips! But have no fear. I shall press on! It IS for a good cause, after all.

So today I have two more pillows to show you. This is the end of the pillow production as I have run out of pillow forms and I am very quickly running out of time as well.



Isn't this fabric just plain Funky? I can't seem to think of another word to describe it. In among the piles of fabric was also a bag of trim, so this pillow got a nice little dressing up with a pretty burgundy trim.


It also has the overlap on the back which you can see in the picture above. That makes it so much easier to finish the pillow. All you have to do is turn it and stuff it and it's done. This is also a big pillow at 18 inches square so I really didn't want to hand stitch the opening!



This pretty little envelope pillow is only 12 inches square and the cover is actually an envelope! The button is functional, holding the flap closed, and when you open the flap, the body of the pillow opens like an envelope to hold the pillow form. Yet another way to eliminate the need for hand finishing...except for sewing on the button!

I have also made 3 more tote bags which I will show you tomorrow along with any others that I can get done before writing my post. I have 5 more cut out and ready to sew, so I just need to find the time to sit at my machine and produce.

The fabric pile is actually getting smaller. I noticed that while picking through it to make more combinations for tote bags. I can now see the cover of the pool table! Progress is being made!

Now back to work. Time is running short.

Happy Stitching!

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More Pillows!

Here are two more pillows that I have made from my pile of donated upholstery fabric for the fast approaching Holiday Fair. They are both made using 12 x 16 inch pillow forms and they both have an overlap on the back so the pillow covers can be removed for cleaning - and also so I didn't have to hand stitch the turning opening closed at the end!



This pillow was made with two different fabrics that had leaves on them. I thought it was a pretty neat combination and I liked the contrast of the dark and the light. I also like that the colors are not split right down the middle, or divided front and back. What do you think?


This pillow is made from what was left of the fabric I used for Tote bag #11. Then I made a band out of a scrap of lining fabric from another tote bag and sewed a button onto it. A very easy way to dress up a handmade or store bought pillow.

Still so much sewing to do...must get back to the sewing room! The real me will be back next week, I promise!

Happy Stitching!

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Update on Upholstery Fabric Pile and Pay It Forward Reminder

The pile of donated fabric doesn't look too much different than it did when I first showed it to you the other day, even though I have made 9 tote bags and 2 pillows! That's when you know you have Too Much Fabric!

I already showed you the first 5 tote bags and the 2 pillows. I am hoping today to get another several bags cut out and sewn up and tonight I will take some pictures so I can show them to you tomorrow.

This mad sewing rush has thrown my posting schedule completely out of whack since I have not had one minute to work on anything besides that pile of fabric. I do apologize for that. But I've been having fun with it, mixing and matching the fabrics and thinking of fun ways to sew pillow covers and bags. I did try an idea I had for a bag the other day. That experiment took me several hours and did not work out to be usable in the end. So I decided just to stick with the basic tote bag for now so I can get as many made before Saturday as possible. I'll experiment more when I have the luxury of time.

I also wanted to remind you of my Pay It Forward exchange that I put out there not too long ago. Lyn in Australia is already making me something because I was the first one to sign up for her PIF exchange. Now I need three handy and generous people to sign up for mine so I can make them something special sometime in the next year. The only catch is that they must post the same exchange on their website and make something for three other people within the next year who would then do the same thing. And it just keeps on going. I hope it does anyway. It would be kind of sad if this leg of the PIF exchange died with me. How embarrassing!

So check out my PIF post which you can find here and if you feel like being generous to three other people in the next year, leave a comment on that post so I can start thinking of something nice to make for you. It would be my pleasure!

Now back to the sewing room. I promise pictures next time!

Happy Stitching!

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Pillows Made from Leftover Upholstery Fabric

I've been busy working through the pile of upholstery fabric I received last week. The other day you saw some of the tote bags I had made. I picked up some pillow forms from Michael's and made some pillows that I'd like to show you today.



This pillow is made with a 14 inch square form and a piece of fabric that was not quite big enough to use for anything else. It was square, so I put the pillow form in the middle of it turned on point and folded the points of the fabric up to the middle of the pillow. I sewed the first three seams, then measured to see if it would be too big for the form, which it was. So I stitched about a half inch seam all around the outside of the newly formed square thus making the inside pocket for the pillow form smaller and creating a little edge on the pillow. Then I squeezed the form into the last opening and stitched it closed using a blind stitch and heavy duty quilting thread. I sewed a button to the center front and another to the center back, going back and forth between the two a few times to pull in the middle a bit.


You can't really see all four seams too well in either picture, but there is a seam going from each corner to the middle of the front of the pillow. So I sort of made an envelope out of the fabric square and then stitched it closed after adding the pillow form through the last opening. The colors of this fabric are very rich, but a little dark. I'm sure someone at the Holiday Fair will think it is just perfect for their bed or chair or living room sofa.


This fabric is quite heavy and a crazy mix of navy blue and some greens in an odd cross-hatch sort of design. I used an 18 inch square pillow form for this one and added some navy blue loopy kind of trim around the outside to dress it up a little.


For the back panel of this one, I overlapped two pieces of hemmed fabric so that the pillow cover could be removed for cleaning. You can see the line that looks like a seam going from the edge towards the middle of the pillow. That is the hemmed edge of the outside overlap piece. This is a nice way to make a pillow with trim on the edges because you can stitch up the entire outside edge with the right sides together and still have an opening to turn the pillow cover right side out. I love a project that doesn't require any fussy finishing like hand stitching openings!

So that is what I've done so far with the pillow forms I purchased. Next time I'll show you what else I've created with my extensive selection of beautiful upholstery fabrics. Here's a hint: Did I ever mention that I love Bags?

Happy Stitching!

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