Sewing Quick Pillow Covers

Up until last week, the guest room was looking pretty bare and needed something to tie together the floral headboard and the rest of the neutral room.  Since my linens are all white, I decided a throw pillow for the bed would be the perfect place for a new pattern.  I wanted a rectangular pillow form on the larger side and picked up this soft, very affordable one at Hobby Lobby (SO conveniently located right next to my home away from home, Home Depot:)).  

I chose this fabric for its fun, whimsical feel and its perfect combination of pinks and reds (to tie in the headboard) with blues and creamy beiges (for the rug). I love how it has both scrolly floral patterns plus fun animals-- it's just the kind of thing I would have loved as a child (and apparently still do!).  Plus the name is great: Uzbek Jewel.

My pillow form was 14" x 28", so I measured my fabric and cut two rectangles leaving 1" extra on each edge-- so in this case 16" x 30".  To create the piping around the edges I cut 2 1/2" strips of fabric at a 45 degree angle, which gives it flexibility for rounding the corners, even if you are using a stiff material.  Then I wrapped the strip around some cotton upholstery cording and stitched all the way down, keeping the needle as close to the cording as possible.  

With the welting all stitched and ready to go, I turned the two front sides of my rectangles to face each other and positioned the cording-- rounded side inwards-- around the edges, pinning to hold it all together.  Then I just used a simple straight stitch, again keeping close to the bump of cording, to sew about 3/4 of the way around, leaving a hole to turn it inside out.

 To allow the cording to wrap around the corners without buckling, I snipped several cuts into the extra fabric before pinning into place. 

I am usually too impatient to bother with sewing in zippers to my pillows, and I'm afraid this case was no different.  Instead I crammed the pillow form into the hole left open in the case, pinned the opening together and stitched it closed as close to the edge as possible.  And done!  It's such a quick, satisfying project, and you can change up the look of a room so easily with new pillows.

xo

Liza