Easy Envelope Pillow Cover Tutorial!

I decided this weekend that my bed was looking rather plain. Since it's not really in the budget right now to overhaul all my bedding, I decided I could jazz it up some with some fun pillows. But then, I got a little bit of sticker shock. Have you seen the prices on pretty, decorative pillows? It's a little crazy if you ask me.

Almost $50 for two pillows?



A little better at $16.99 at Target, but I can do cheaper

First I was off to Joann fabrics. My first stroke of luck came in the form of clearance:

That's half off y'all!

Next  I went in search of fabric. I only needed half a yard, and I had a 60% off coupon, so I paid $2.00 for this fabric! Score! That brings my total to $10! Not bad!

This fabric is "Quilters showcase yellow and gray circle tile" and is no longer available online, but there was plenty in my local store.

My pillow form was 16x16, so I purchase half a yard of fabric. First I cut off about 17 inches(which was just under half).

Set that piece aside. The next piece cut to 24 inches(I only had to trim off a couple inches). Then, cut that piece in half at 14 inches, so you have three pieces.

Now, you want to hem the back parts that will form the "envelope" opening.

I folded under once,

And then once more to hide the raw edge.

Iron that down, and then just sew a simple straight stitch down the fold.

I know you're supposed to use coordinating thread, but I already had black in my machine, and the only visible seam is on the back, so I threw caution to the wind and forged ahead!

Now you are going to pin your fabric together to sew it all up! You are going to pin in together in this order:

First the uncut piece, good side up

Next comes the larger of the two hemmed pieces on top, good side DOWN, with the hemmed portion in the middle, like so:

And finally the smaller hemmed piece, again good side down, hem facing towards the center.

Before sewing I did a quick size fit with my pillow form. I really wanted it to be a snug fit so it would fill out nicely.

At this point I saw it was a little bigger than what I wanted, so I just started sewing about an 3/4-1 inches in from the edge.

Now you are just going to sew along all sides! You don't need to leave an opening, because we will be using the middle envelope part to reverse when we're done.

Here's what you need to do to get a nice, pointy corner. When you reach the end of your stitch, stop sewing, but leave the needle down. Lift the pressure foot, and rotate your fabric(with the needle still in it) so that the direction you want to sew is in place.

Now your pillow case should look like this:

Trim off the excess fabric, if any, and reach through the pocket and pull right side out. Make sure you poke out the corners with your finger!

Stuff in your pillow form, and you are done! Place it on your bed and stand back and admire!

This was so easy and turned out so nice, I'm going to be making some covers soon for my couch pillows! Stay tuned!