My friend's daughter wanted to try and make a pillow. I thought that's a good easy first project for her. She knew the idea of how to do but she wanted some help. Since she kind of knew how to do it and she wanted a medium size pillow I thought that it would be fun to show her how to a slip cover for a pillow. That way if she changed her mind on the color it can easily be changed. It didn't hurt either that JoAnns had their pillow forms 50% off. I also had three other kids who decided that they wanted to make pillows too!
After making two slip covers I realized that I've been able to do things again and haven't gone back to my blog. I hadn't done much crafting yet but this was a good project to get back into it.
Easy Pillow Slip Cover
Please read through the entire post before you try.
This is the pillow form I used
http://www.joann.com/soft-n-crafty-decorator-s-choice-pillowform-14inx14in/1776772.html
Here are my three pieces of fabric. This is my daughter's pillow. My Viking Sewing machine can do embroidery so I let the kids pick out some fun things to put on their pillows. I had these cute princess designs from LynniePinnie.com . We arranged everything on the main piece of fabric(15"x 15"). She picked out the striped fabric for the back pieces.
2. With right side of main fabric(what you want to see on the front of your pillow) facing up, match the 15" bottom of main fabric and 15" rough sides of one back piece. After sewing and turning right side out I realized I made a mistake as you can see in the photo. So right sides of fabrics are touching. You can pin the bottom and sides and then sew those three sides. Or if you like to save some a little time, pin the bottom and go to the next step.
Either back piece will work because they'll overlap anyway. One will show on the back, it'll just depend what you think will look best. The first piece you lay down will be the one that shows. I'm doing it so that the folds will make a horizontal line in the back. But you could also pin to the sides of the main fabric instead to make a vertical line, easily done if you're working in a square otherwise you have to adjust the measurements of your back pieces.
3. Next pin the second back piece with 15" rough edges matching to the top of the main piece. In this picture I folded the fabric to show how the second back piece will lay over the first, this will be the overlap. After you pin the top you can pin the sides holding the overlap together. You will be sewing through all three pieces in the middle.
If you already sewed the first back piece, you'll also pin the sides of second back piece and sew all three sides. Check step 4.
You never sew the folded side of the back pieces.
4. Here are all the sides pinned. Now you'll take it over to your machine and sew all around the four sides. Have a 1/4" seam allowance, you can go a little bigger but no more than a 1/2" seam allowance. You don't have to worry about leaving a gap, just one continuous square. I like to do a second row of stitches around also to to help with fraying fabric and just to make sure it's secure.
I put my scissors between the back pieces to show where the overlap is.
If you sewed the back pieces one at a time you're done, just optional second row of stitches around.
5. Making sure all the pins are out, you can now turn the cover right side out. All the rough edges will be on the inside and not seen. Slide one side of your pillow into one of the cover pockets.
Now pull the other side of the slip cover over the other side of the pillow. I bunched up the pillow a little so the overlap section can be seen easier. This picture shows the back side of cover.
Please read through the entire post before you try.
What you need:
-Pillow form 14"x 14"
-Main fabric(front of pillow): 15"x 15"
-Back fabric piece #1: 15"x 16.5"
-Back fabric piece #2: 15"x 20"
-thread
-hopefully a sewing machine!
-hopefully a sewing machine!
This is the pillow form I used
http://www.joann.com/soft-n-crafty-decorator-s-choice-pillowform-14inx14in/1776772.html
Here are my three pieces of fabric. This is my daughter's pillow. My Viking Sewing machine can do embroidery so I let the kids pick out some fun things to put on their pillows. I had these cute princess designs from LynniePinnie.com . We arranged everything on the main piece of fabric(15"x 15"). She picked out the striped fabric for the back pieces.
1. Fold the back pieces in half, wrong sides together, matching the 15" edges. It's best to iron the pieces so it's easier to pin and sew.
2. With right side of main fabric(what you want to see on the front of your pillow) facing up, match the 15" bottom of main fabric and 15" rough sides of one back piece. After sewing and turning right side out I realized I made a mistake as you can see in the photo. So right sides of fabrics are touching. You can pin the bottom and sides and then sew those three sides. Or if you like to save some a little time, pin the bottom and go to the next step.
Either back piece will work because they'll overlap anyway. One will show on the back, it'll just depend what you think will look best. The first piece you lay down will be the one that shows. I'm doing it so that the folds will make a horizontal line in the back. But you could also pin to the sides of the main fabric instead to make a vertical line, easily done if you're working in a square otherwise you have to adjust the measurements of your back pieces.
3. Next pin the second back piece with 15" rough edges matching to the top of the main piece. In this picture I folded the fabric to show how the second back piece will lay over the first, this will be the overlap. After you pin the top you can pin the sides holding the overlap together. You will be sewing through all three pieces in the middle.
If you already sewed the first back piece, you'll also pin the sides of second back piece and sew all three sides. Check step 4.
You never sew the folded side of the back pieces.
4. Here are all the sides pinned. Now you'll take it over to your machine and sew all around the four sides. Have a 1/4" seam allowance, you can go a little bigger but no more than a 1/2" seam allowance. You don't have to worry about leaving a gap, just one continuous square. I like to do a second row of stitches around also to to help with fraying fabric and just to make sure it's secure.
I put my scissors between the back pieces to show where the overlap is.
If you sewed the back pieces one at a time you're done, just optional second row of stitches around.
5. Making sure all the pins are out, you can now turn the cover right side out. All the rough edges will be on the inside and not seen. Slide one side of your pillow into one of the cover pockets.
Now pull the other side of the slip cover over the other side of the pillow. I bunched up the pillow a little so the overlap section can be seen easier. This picture shows the back side of cover.
And here is the front.
You can easily make a slip cover for any size pillow. My thought process was the pillow is 14"x 14" so for the front piece I'll add an inch to the measurements to allow for the bulk of the pillow and a 1/4" seam allowance around. Keep the same width as the main fabric piece for the back pieces and adjust the length as needed. The back pieces need to be long enough to fold in half with one piece a little longer to create a couple of inches in overlap for the back of the cover.
To save on fabric you can use different size back pieces. For example I could have used:
-Back fabric piece #1: 15"x 9"
-Back fabric piece #2: 15"x 14"
Instead of folding the pieces in half I would just fold 1/2" of one of the long edges down(wrong side of fabric touching wrong side of fabric) and sew across. An example is doing this to the 15"x 9" piece. Folding the 1/2" down will make the piece 15"x 8.5".
I made a picture to kind of show this.
Then sew the cover the same, only difference is that the back pieces won't be as thick.
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