Have you always wanted to learn to sew? How about learning to sew a pillow cover? Today, I’m going to teach you how to sew an easy envelope pillow cover! Yay! I bet this is exactly what you would like to do on this cold, February day, right? Right!
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How I began to love to sew!
Growing up, my mom, who can quilt wonderfully, always allowed me access to her sewing machine. I played around with making my own clothes a tiny bit. It was fun, but, I didn’t really know how to use a pattern well. You can imagine what my creations looked like! Haha! My grandma, on the other hand, could sew clothing like crazy! For myself, my strength and passion lie in making small projects to beautify my home.
When I got married, my husband bought me a sewing machine. We had to save for months to buy it. It was $400.00. Crazy to remember that! When we finally picked it up, I remember going to my mother-in-law’s house to show her my new machine. She can sew like a dream. That evening, she showed me how to sew an envelope pillow cover. Wow! I fell in love with making pillow covers, and I totally could not stop sewing them after that!
Watch on YouTube!
What you need for sewing your easy envelope pillow cover:
- A sewing machine. This is mine, and I love it, but you only need a very simple model sewing machine. Like this one.
- A good, sharp pair of scissors. You will be frustrated if your scissors are not sharp- believe me!
- Pins. And a pincushion. I made mine. Maybe I’ll do a tutorial sometime on making your own pincushion?
- I use a cutting mat for quilting, and a rotary cutter.
- And last but not least, some FABRIC! Yay! The best and most exciting part.
Okay, let’s get down to business here. These are the steps to making your simple, easy envelope pillow cover!
- Iron your fabric! Make sure to start with nice, flat, ironed fabric. It makes all the difference.
- Measure your pillow form. Mine was 20″ by 20″.
- Add 1″ to the length of the pillow and 1″ to the width of the pillow. This gives you lots of wiggle room for a nice seam.
- Cut out one piece of fabric for the front of your pillow. Mine was 21″ by 21″. See?
- NOW. Get a piece of paper and a pencil. You’ll want to write this down. Divide the width of your front piece in 1/2. Mine was 10 1/2″ . Now add 8″ to that measurement. Half the width PLUS 8 inches. These will be your back flaps. Mine came to 18 1/2″. So. You will cut out TWO pieces of fabric that are the length of your pillow front BY half the width PLUS eight. Do you get it? Mine turned out to be 21″ by 18 1/2″.
Now the fun part!
- Cut out your two pieces for the back flaps.
- Now. I hope you left your iron on, because we are going to iron some more. Sewing is all about ironing…
- Take your two back flap pieces with you to the ironing board. Hold one piece in front of you, and decide which is the longest side. Lay it on the ironing board in front of you and turn up the long side about a 1/4″. Iron it flat.
- Turn up again about a 1/2″ and iron it flat again. Now your messy unfinished fabric edge is hiding.
- Pin this seam shut, and repeat with the other back flap piece.
- Take the two back flap pieces to the sewing machine, and stitch the seam shut at about a 1/2″. Remember to backstitch at the beginning and end of your seam. If you are not sure how to backstitch, all it is is just sewing forward and backward at the beginning and end of your seam. Your sewing machine probably came with an instruction book which will explain where the backstitch button is on your sewing machine.
Phewf! Almost there!
7. Okay. We got this far, right? You’ll make it for sure, and end up with a beautiful envelope pillow cover.
8. Now, lay your front square piece of fabric with the right side up. The right side is the nice side.
9. On top of the front piece, lay one back piece RIGHT SIDE DOWN….facing the front piece. Make sure your lovely seam is in the middleish of the front piece. Lay the other back piece on the opposite side of your front piece.
10. Sew a 1/2″ seam all the way around the layers of pillow cover. You will sew a square.
11. Can you believe that you’re done? All you have left to do is turn the pillow cover right side out, and slip the pillow form into it!! But first, don’t forget to cut the points off the corners- this will allow for nice, pointy corners when they are turned right side out.
Way to go! I hope you found this helpful, and if you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below.
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