Easy Peasy Pillow Covers

I love updating my pillow colors as the seasons progress, so I came up with an easy way to make my own pillow covers. I use upholstery weight fabrics, and I try to choose ones that will wash well. FabricGuru is a great website to find remnants of fancy fabrics at affordable prices.

Today I’m making covers for 18″ pillows. I prewashed my fabric, a cotton blend, in case of shrinkage. I want a 2″ border on each side of my covers, and I need .5″ for seam allowance on each side. So, I cut my front as a 23″ square (18+2+2+.5+.5=23). When I made a cover for a 16″ pillow with a 1″ border it was 19″ (16+1+1+.5+.5=19). You get the idea. I want a 6″ overlap in the back on today’s pillow, so that’s an extra 3″ on each and each back side needs a double folded seam (.5″+.5″) so my two backs are cut at 23×15.5 (23/2= 11.5+3+.5+.5=15.5). Okay, that’s all the tricky math done!

I turned one edge of each of my back pieces and pressed it at .5″, then turned it again and pressed another .5″ (make sure the pressed seam is on the back side of your fabric). Then I stitched these seams. If you have a repeating pattern in your fabric, try to match it up, so your pillow back looks tidy. It’s so much easier to make covers with overlapping backs instead of zippers.

Next, I place one back section on my front, making sure the right sides of the fabric are together on the inside, and the pattern is running the same direction. After pinning the first back piece, I place the second one on top of it, letting them overlap in the center.

I stitched around all four sides of the pillow cover, using a .5″ seam allowance. If your fabric is thick, it can be tricky stitching across the seams in the center since there are so many layers, but if you go slowly, it should work.

Next, I turned the covers right side out, and used a chopstick (or a cute hairpick) to turn the corners. Then I pressed the cover flat, trying to keep the edges as straight as possible.

Next, I stitched my border seam around all four sides. I wanted a 2″ border on these covers, but you can go anywhere from 1″ to 3″ and have a fairly similar look. What’s nice about this border seam is that it catches all your raw edges and keeps them hidden inside the border, so you can wash your covers without them fraying. This is so much easier than using pinking shears or a serger on all your edges.

Now you can have pillow covers for any occasion. You can applique words or pictures on the front before stitching to personalize them even more. The possibilities are endless!