How to change old pillow backings - the easy way! |Keeping it Real

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

How to change old pillow backings - the easy way!

Hello everyone! Today I want to share with you a quick and easy way to change pillow backings. Because sometimes you have a wonderful old pillow that you love and want to keep, but that needs a little care and attention, but you don't have a lot of time to work on it.
 
How to change old pillow backings - the easy way!

When we got married, my husband and I got a rug and three matching pillows for our living room, in this pattern:

How to change old pillow backings - the easy way!

 
A little over twelve years later, the rug and the front of the pillows are still in great condition (though I have to wash them regularly because they have a white background which does not last white very long with the kids hanging around). But the pillow backings, for some reason, did not survive the test of time. You can't see it very well below (I took this photo at night), but they were stained (stains that no amount of washing was able to remove), the fabric was damaged in places and two of the three zippers were no longer working. 

How to change old pillow backings - the easy way!
 
At first, I thought about replacing both the pillows and the rug (to same myself the trouble of having to wash them regularly), but I still like them and I couldn't really justify the cost. So I started looking for a quick and easy way to replace the pillow backings. Mostly, I wanted to keep the covers opening and closing with a zipper, but I didn't want the hassle of having to sew on three zippers.

The solution? Three simple pillow covers from Ikea, in a fabric very similar to the original one, and with zippers already sewn!

How to change old pillow backings - the easy way!

These pillow covers were a bit larger than my original ones, but here's what I did: 

First I separated the pillow fronts from their original backings:


Then I measured and decided how much the Ikea covers needed to be reduced and, with those covers turned inside out, I sewed two of the sides down to the right size, making sure the zipper remained where I wanted it:

How to change old pillow backings - the easy way!

 How to change old pillow backings - the easy way!

I cut off the excess fabric...

How to change old pillow backings - the easy way!

...turned inside out and hand sewed the original pillow fronts to the front of the Ikea pillow covers (so now the pillow covers actually have two fronts, but one of them is hidden underneath the other. An the back of my pillows is once again presentable:

How to change old pillow backings - the easy way!

Even with the hand sewing, replacing the pillow backings was much easier than having to cut fabric, sew on zippers and then sew front and back of the pillows together. And if I had managed to find new pillow covers in the right size, it would have been even easier!

How to change old pillow backings - the easy way!

Thank you for stopping by, and happy Tuesday!

keeping it real, craft blog




9 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing this at Dream Create and Inspire! this is handy, i am making some pillows this week, so this can come in handy beautiful job, its a pleasure you stop by..love if you hop over and visit me at http://www.simplenaturedecorblog.com/ just finished my one room challenge.

    Its a pleasure again to have you!
    Maria

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  2. great tutorial! thanks for sharing your post with us at Creatively Crafty Link Party #CCBG http://tryit-likeit.com/entries/link-party/

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  3. I love that you gave your pillow covers new life so much that I had to include it in my Earth Day round up. http://www.purfylle.com/2016/04/36-earth-day-ideas.html

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  4. So glad you were able to keep your original pillow fronts! They are really pretty.

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  5. I'm glad you shared this tutorial with us at Creatively Crafty. It's a great solution! Hope to see you again, thanks!

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