I Made a Pillow and You Can Too!

Do you like how easy I made it seem in the headline? I swear you can make this pillow cover.

But first off, let me tell you that I finally finished the bench that I’ve been working on since… November? Remember my fabric saga (here, here and here)? And remember what the bench looked like before? Yuk.

The finished bench turned out cute, but a little lumpy. I probably should have put new stuffing in, instead of reusing the 50+ year old innards. I had to sew the piping on, which also is a bit uneven. But I notice all my little details.

I painted the legs too, with leftover bronze spray paint from my coffee table.

Geometric Upholstered Bench

I had a bit of leftover fabric, and decided to make a quick pillow cover, for an old Ikea pillow that I don’t use anymore.

Here’s a super easy way to make a new pillow out of an old one. All you just need is cute fabric and matching thread, and some velcro or a large button if you like.

• Measure the size of one side of the old pillow cover.
• Cut out one piece of your new fabric that is 1″ larger in length and width than the old pillow cover. This will allow for a 0.5″ seam.
• Cut out two pieces of your new fabric in the same width (plus an inch), and length divided in half plus 4 inches (0.5l+4 if you remember algebra). This will give you enough room for a 0.5″ seam and a bit of overlap so the pillow cover is like an envelope. For example, if your original pillow cover was 21″x16″ these two pieces will be 21″x12″. The back will eventually turn out like this:

Detail of the back of the pillow

• With the right side facing down, fold over about 0.5 inches on the long side of the smaller pieces. Then fold it over again. Use an iron to get the creases to stay.
• Unfold one of these creases and sew straight down the piece of fabric to create a seam. Fold over the fabric (where you ironed it before) to hide the seam. Repeat with other small piece of fabric.
• Pin the 3 pieces together with right sides facing each other and the two smaller pieces overlapping so it makes a rectangle as large as the largest piece of fabric.
• Sew all the way around this rectangle.
• Turn inside out and place on pillow! Here’s where you could also sew a piece of velcro or button onto the back of the pillow cover to hold it together, rather than it gaping open. I would have, but didn’t have either of these notions on hand. (Don’t you love the word ‘notions’!?)

Ta-da! New, custom pillow!

Are my directions clear enough? I basically figured it out as I went.

New geometric pillow!

I did learn a few things, namely that my seams were not 0.5″, and the case turned out a little large. No big deal though. I’ll probably change my mind on the pillow in a few months anyway. Any sewing projects that you have coming up or just finished?

-Liz