The 10-minute pillow cover tutorial

My favorite projects are those that come together quickly. Ideally, I prefer things that I can start and finish in the same day, otherwise they run the risk of ending up in the unfinished projects pile for quite some time. So, when I decided to add a new pillow to our living room couch, I knew I had to make it the easy way. 

When we replaced the living room couch I basically used the same pillows we already had with minimal changes (you can read about it here), but then I decided I needed one more pillow, a bit larger than the others, for better back support. 

While going through my stash, I also found the perfect fabric to match our new black couch: 

So, I quickly made a pillow cover. "Quickly" being the keyword here. Let me show you how. 

First, measure and cut your fabric. I guess this task was made easy for me since this piece was all I had of the fabric and the pillow was big. So, no real cutting involved.

But basically, your fabric should be enough to cover the pillow and create a fold, envelope style. Usually I prefer my fold to be on the longest side of the pillows, but due to the size of this particular piece of fabric, I had to do it on the shorter side. You can hem the side that you are folding in if you want: 

This is optional, as this edge of the fabric will be hidden, so unless your fabric frays a lot, you can leave it as is. Because I'm picky (and I prefer to avoid any situation where my kids find loose threads to pull), I hemmed.

Next, fold and pin in place. 

And then fold again onto the shape of the actual pillow, right sides together. 

Sew all three remaining sides of the pillow (other than the folded one). Turn inside out and press the seams. 

And your new pillow cover is finished. Place pillow inside and use the fold to keep it in place.

I'm really happy with this pillow cover, as I think it matches the couch (and the rest of our living room decor) perfectly. Too bad I didn't have any more of this particular fabric, or I would have added one pillow more.

And it is such an easy project that I'm thinking about making new pillow covers for our guest room bed too. Hopefully I'll be able to share those soon. 

Happy Tuesday,