Friday, July 16, 2010

Home Project: envelope pillow covers

When we moved into the house we're renting, it was partly furnished. And on our very meager one-income-in-southern-california budget, we have had to make use of all of the free stuff we can get.

But finally, I got really sick of the ugly pillows that came on our couch, so last week I used my lunch break to pick up some on-sale fabric (In reality, I was there to buy an emergency sewing kit to fix a giant hole in my shirt before a meeting that afternoon, and got distracted by the pretty colors)
(but let's pretend I wasn't)

I took the fabric home and with my fingers crossed began haphazardly cutting it with my kitchen scissors and a 12 inch ruler .
I don't need to tell you it was a bit of a disaster.

So I searched online for a tutorial and found this


brilliant. A cover that can be made without ruining current ugly pillows (just in case our landlord ever wants them back), and doesn't involve hand-stitching or stuffing--
I was sold.

Here is one of the old ugly pillows
IMG_1359

I began by ironing the fabric heavily because it was so thick, tried to measure carefully on my kitchen table using the leaf indents as measurements (the closes I had to straight lines) and hemmed the edges.

the pillows I was covering was 18 inches, so my 3 pieces of fabric were
19x19
19x 11.5
19x11.5

Then I pinned the three pieces together (one front, two back pieces)

IMG_1366

Then stitched the edges, all the way around, at a half inch and snipped the corners.

IMG_1367

Flipped it inside out and pushed out the corners

IMG_1360

When it was completely right-sided, it looked like this
IMG_1361

I was SO thrilled.

IMG_1362

I stuffed the ugly pillow inside and breathed a sigh of relief

IMG_1364

this project is relatively simple and easy, but it took me a total of probably 4 hours for 4 pillows, including ironing sewing and stuffing.
I haven't used a machine in probably 5+ years and don't own any of the equipment I should have. (I would love some sewing equipment like this!)
I do own a pair of sewing scissors, three colors of thread, and I borrowed a 30-year-old sewing machine from my mother-in-law.

But if you have the right supplies, this is a simple enough project, so I hope you try it too!

IMG_1368
(unfortunately there's very little that can be done for our well-worn couch.)

I need a new cheap home project to work on next--any suggestions?

2 comments:

Morgan said...

I LOVE the new fabric you used on the pillows! Gives such a nice pop against your couch!

Katie said...

GREAT JOB! I wish I had any skill whatsoever when it comes to sewing. We also have a bunch of left behind pillows that are just plain hideous. I have resigned to throwing them in a garage sale, and buying new ones. Try slipcovers for the couch. The former owner of our townhome left her couches that her cat had all but destroyed. Other than that though, they were really comfy, and we weren't in the mood to hunt for overpriced furniture, so we kept them, picked up some slipcovers from Target, and they look great now!

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