How to Make a Pillow Cover

Change or enhance the look of a room simply by changing the covers on your throw pillows. Covers will also help protect your pillows from everyday wear and tear. The instructions here are for 24-inch pillows.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Cording
• Dressmaker Pins
• Fabric-marking Pens
• Irons
• Sewing Machine
• Threads
• Cutting Mats
• Scissors
• Scissors
• 1 1/4 yards fabrics

1. Choose 1 1/4 yards of 45-inch-wide home decorating fabric for your pillow cover. Choose a coordinating thread and 20-inch zipper as well.

2. Prewash fabric, and iron if necessary.

3. 

   Use a fabric-cutting board, yardstick, fabric-marking pen and scissors to measure and cut out two 25 1/4-inch squares of fabric.

4. 

   See "How to Keep Raw Fabric Edges from Fraying" for instructions on how to finish the cut edges of the pillow squares.

5. Add any fabric paint or appliqués to your pillow before you start to sew the cover.

6. Place your pillow pieces right sides together and pin one edge to another. Make sure that edges line up evenly.

7. 

   Insert the zipper into the center of the seam. Open zipper and pin the other pillow edges together.

8. 

   Stitch 5/8 of an inch from the pinned fabric edges and sew the remaining seams. When you reach a corner, lift the presser foot of your sewing machine and swivel fabric so that your stitching line remains straight. Keep needle inserted in fabric as you reposition.

9. 

   Turn the pillow right-side-out. Push out all the corners and insert the throw pillow. Close zipper.

Tips & Warnings

• Make your pillow cover any size. Just remember to adjust the yardage amount and zipper length accordingly.
• Taper the seam allowances at the pillow cover corners so that seam allowance is less than 5/8 of an inch.
• Use tassels and cording to decorate your pillows covers. These items should be applied to the seams and corners of your cover before you sew.
• Make sure that the zipper for your pillow cover is in the seam at the bottom of the design. If there is no designated top or bottom to the design, then place the zipper in any seam.

on 6/30/2006 Before I turn the pillow cover to the right side, I gather a bunch at each corner and tie it with thread. This way, when you turn the cover back to the right side, the corners are rounded and slightly gathered. This alleviates the sharp corners that do not often fill out.