In our family room the floor is a gorgeous dark wood, the walls are a light “mushroom bisque” and our couch is a giant brown corduroy sectional. That room is brown, brown and more brown! So after ordering some fabric (ahem) over 6 months ago to recover some throw pillows to add a little color, I finally got around to it and I wanted to share how easy it is to make a simple throw pillow cover!
Materials:
- Fabric
- Sewing Machine
- Thread
- Pins
- Scissors
- Measuring tape
- Iron
Tip: Prewash your fabric, this way it won’t shrink when you wash the pillow covers. Iron if you want. I find it easier to work with nicely ironed fabric.
1. Measure your pillow. I usually make pillow cases that are the exact size of my pillows. Some people like them an inch smaller for a firmer pillow, but I hate struggling to get the cover on with smaller pillow cases. Measure your fabric. You want it 2″ wider than your pillow and 2 times longer + an extra 8 inches. Example, my pillows were 20 inches. So my fabric was 22″ x 48″. Double check your measurements. Cut.
2. Fold each short end (the 22″ ends in my case) an inch, iron if you’d like, and pin. Sew across.
3. Now fold the fabric down to the size of your pillow. Hard to explain in words, see photos. You want to fold it down to the size of your pillow with the wrong side of the fabric (what will be on the inside) facing out. It should overlap about 6″ and create the envelope type closure.
4. Sew down the sides. Back stitch to strengthen the parts where it overlaps because those will be put under a lot of pressure when you’re stuffing your pillow in the case.
5. Turn it inside out and you’re done!
Seriously the easiest ever and all you need to know how to do is cut fabric and sew straight lines!
Like this tutorial? I’d appreciate it if you used the buttons below to pin it for later or share it.
Thank you for simple, step by step instructions! You would be amazed how many tutorials I found that didn’t tell me exactly how much to add for seam allowance, or how to adjust for my pillow size, just told me how they did theirs! A great tutorial, and the pictures are very helpful!
You are SO welcome! I am happy the tutorial helped you out 🙂
Hi. I don’t have very much of the main fabric, so I was going to do the backside in a plain, black sheet fabric. How would I measure it so that the fold-over part is in the black material? Thanks.