Thursday, April 15, 2010

"Sew" Easy 10 Minute Pillow Cover

Yay! Aren't you all glad that spring is finally here? At least around here it is....nice 70 degree weather. Love it!! And of course, guess what that means? My patio furniture finally gets to come up out of the dungeon basement and see the light of day :)

And that also means that I get to sew some new pillow covers for our outdoor pillows! Yay!!!
I love adding a new look to old things.

So...I've got my pillow (on sale from target last year...waited months and months and they finally got down below $3, so I bought 4), and Joanns was having a sale on their 'semi' outdoor fabric. So, I jumped and bought a yard of each.
10 minute 'sew' easy pillow cover
From my experience, one yard will make two pillow covers.
Step 1: Just cut straight down the middle of the yard (so 18" on both sides). Now each side will make a cover for a standard 16" square pillow:


Step 2: On the two short edges, fold over about 2 to 3 inches and pin in place:

Now stitch along where you just folded:

Step 3:Next, lay the piece down and put the pillow on top to make sure the dimensions on the side are correct; just in case your pillow isn't exactly 16". There should be about a 2 inch overlap of fabric as shown below:

Step 4: Foldthe fabric over the top of the pillow and eye where the next folds should be:

After eyeing the folds, fold both sides down and place the pillow on top to make sure the pillow will fit inside the case once it is stitched.  To make sure that the cover isn't too big or too small, check to see if there is about an inch or so of fabric around each edge:

Step 5: Once you get the measurements right, pin and stitch around the openings.
(and don't poke yourself....like I did....say about 5 or 6 times)

Step 6: Turn inside out and put the pillow inside.
And voila! A sewwwwww easy 10 minute pillow cover.


I am so going to be enjoying this patio today...tomorrow...and hopefully for the next few months unless this unpredictable weather has another snow storm planned for us....I think then I just might cry.

Once you get a hang of making these, you can cut the time in half. they are that easy to make :) Or if you have already made one, you can use that size as the template for the next ones so you don't have to keep on putting the pillow on top of the fabric to make sure of the right measurements. 

Happy Creating!