Pillow Cover Tutorial

Use this pillow cover tutorial to make your own DIY pillow case. It’s a cheap way to add more color to a room. Use old pillows and get the designer look for a thrifted price.

I am not the best at sewing, but taking up embroidery has definitely made me better. Since I don’t have a machine, I do all of my sewing by hand. Which means a simple project takes me forever.

Which should be explanation enough for why I put off this particular project. 😛

I had a lot of fun in November making my pillow cases from old shirts. Transforming old pillows with a new cover is a cheap way to add more flavor to a room.

So I decided to do the same to my spare room. But since I wasn’t using shirts, I needed a way to get the pillow inside…without worrying about button holes or zippers. So I decided to try my hand at an envelop back.

I used this tutorial from Freshly Picked. It’s a great tutorial, though I messed it up in a few spots.

Simple DIY Pillow Cover

• 2 cotton fabric quarters from Joanne’s
• fabric scissors
• needles
• thread
• pillow insert

I bought two matching pillows from a local thrift store for $2.00 each. Since the fabric would be covering the original pillow, it really didn’t matter what they looked like. They just needed to be the same size.

Anyway, here’s how I did it!

Step 01: I laid my fabric on a towel (because I didn’t feel like getting out my ironing board) and I ironed it. Then I measured my pillow and cut two piece of the fabric down to the same size as the pillow.

Step 02: I set one of the pieces aside. Then I cut the second piece into two pieces, to create an envelop back. I made a mistake here and instead of cutting one to be longer than the other, I cut them to be the same size. Cut one of your back pieces to be 3 inches longer than the other piece.

Step 03: I folded the edges down, where I wanted to hem the back pieces. And then I ironed them so they would stay down as I sewed. I used backstitch to hem the ends, because it’s the sturdiest stitch. Here’s a video tutorial for backstitch.

Step 04: After heming the back pieces, I pinned them to the fabric I had set aside (making sure they’re inside-out). Then I started sewing them together.

Step 04: Once I was done sewing, I cut off any excess fabric I had, turned the case outside-in, and stuffed my pillow into it.

My stitching isn’t great. But considering it was done by hand, I’m happy with how it turned out.

Although there’s a gap in the fabric in the back of the pillow case because I didn’t do the envelop back right. But lesson learned. 😛 I need to do one or two more of these, so I’ll get it right next time.

Still, with a smaller pillow insert, this case turned out nicely! I’m really enjoying learning to sew. 😀

And doesn’t it look nice on my reupholstered chair? You can’t even tell I pulled it from a dumpster. 😉

What do you think?