I’ve posted about easy peasy pillow covers in the past.  But thought I’d revisit the subject.

Just because.

This project is so simple, anyone can do it. Seriously.  The hardest part is calculating what size to cut the fabric. And I’ve done that for you!

If you have a sewing machine that sews straight seams, a pair of scissors, a tape measure and some pins you can spruce up your decor with some happy pillows at very little cost.

I have a bunch of pillows at home in a bunch of different sizes.  Some of them were really ugly in their previous lives. But with a little bit of sewing and fun fabric, they have been reincarnated.

So while I was at Lauri’s, I asked if I could give a couple of her old pillows a chance of being loved again.

I think these probably came with a sofa.  (Admit it, you have some of these pillows stored away because you can’t bear throwing them out.  Pillow forms are expensive!)

Lauri put new orange curtains in the playroom.  The walls are yellow.  So I wanted to recover the pillows in a fun fabric that would bring those two bright colors together.

These are 20″ square pillows but are a little out of shape. I would usually add 1″ for seam allowances but I wanted to make the pillow covers a little smaller so they would pull the pillow back into shape.  (Kind of like I wear my jeans too tight so all those out of shape places will get tucked in–but who am I fooling?)

So these instructions are for a very tight 20″ pillow cover.

I’m making two pillows so I bought 1 1/4 yards of 54″ wide material.

I cut my fabric 20″ wide by 48″ long.  This gives plenty of coverage for the envelope style back.

Now I’d like to tell you how I feel about ironing.

Hate it.  Hate it.  HATE IT!

But I iron every step of the way when I’m sewing.  I recently watch a video on sewing a pouf and the blogger said that she never irons.  Only “finger presses” her sewing projects. I’m not that good.  I iron to get a nice accurate seam and I use it for a short cut to mark centers and folds.  So I do it.  (But I seldom iron my clothes–hey I live in Florida, t shirts and shorts. That’s it.)

So I press under 1/2″ and then another 2″ on each short end. And then stitch.

To mark the center of the piece,fold the fabric in half and press.

This is the center of the front of the pillow. Measure 9 1/2″ from fold and mark on each side in the top and bottom seam areas.  (I used a sewing marker that washes out and even has a handy eraser to remove the mark. But as long as you mark within the 1/2″ seam–which I didn’t do in this photo–you can use any kind of marker)

Fold and press on the markings.

Fold the sides together on the pressed seams.

Pin top and bottom.

Stitch top and bottom 1/2″ from edge.

Clip corners

Turn right side out.

Stuff those pillows in!

What a difference!

Done!

Now go find some of your old ugly pillows and make them beautiful!

YOU CAN DO IT!