One Pillow To Rule Them All

Nerdy title, I know. Ok, so I love having pillows out that match my seasonal decor, but we live in an apartment, so we can't go around buying seasonal pillows every season, there's no room to store them. Here's my simple solution.

This yellow pillow is good for spring, summer, and the first half of fall, but November through January I want it to be a dark green plaid, but I want a pillow case that stays closed, comes off and on easy, and doesn't involve using notions of any kind (buttons, snaps, zippers). Basically, this is a lazy girl's pillow covering.

Lay your pillow on your fabric and fold the fabric over the pillow. 

This is to measure where you want to cut for the width of the pillow, and also getting an idea of how much lengthwise fabric you have to work with.

Cut the fabric. See how I didn't leave much of a seam allowance? I want my pillowcase to be snug. Now, this fabric I'm using in Hesse pictures is a woven fabric, so there's really not a lot of give, but I made this same kind of pillow covering in red with a knit fabric, and I was even stingier with my cuts because I knew the fabric would stretch. I'll show what those pillows look like at the end of the blog.

Hem the ends of the fabric. I used a serger because that's all I have right now.

If you're using a fabric with only one patterned side, make sure it's ugly side out. Fold your pillow like you're wrapping a present, folding he excess fabrics over one another.

Pin the ends down to the fabric beneath in both sides and make sure it's taut and even. Does anyone know if I spelled taut right? Ye Olde Spellcheck didn't stop me, but I'm still nervous about it. 

Pull the pillow out of the case. Lay fabric flat and reform pillow case without the pillow.

Sew up both sides. Yay! That's it. Now turn the pillowcase right side out and stick your pillow in it.

That's it. It took me, like, five minutes per pillow. Too easy not to try.

Here's a picture of I've of e red pillows I also did. It's a stretchy knit, so I made the pillow case a little smaller than I would have if it was woven.

Here's what the backs look like once completed. Ok, happy sewing!