Envelope Pillow Tutorial

Baby girl had a really good nap today (aka 2 hours) so after reading lonnymag and getting a little motivation to do something I decided to make some summery pillow covers for a pair of feather pillows I found at GW awhile back.  I did a quick google search (which is how I find out anything) for easy pillow covers and came across a few but I wanted something easier than easy so I made up my own way.  I was really trying to avoid hemming because I hate it so I used a flat sheet I found at a garage sale this weekend and used the hemmed sides for the envelope edges.  Here is how I did it:

FRONT:
1. Measure pillow insert and add 1 inch to each side for seam allowance.  For example, my pillow was 22"x22" so I cut out a piece of fabric at 23"x23".
BACK:
* Pay attentions to where the hem is if your using a sheet.  Make sure it is on the shorter side (the 23" side in my case) so you can use the premade hem.
1. Add 1 inch to the pillow dimensions on one side and 5 inches to the other side.  So my 22" square pillow needed a rectangle 23"x27".
2. Cut your rectangle in half length wise.  My 23"x27" rectangle was cut in half and became 2 pieces each with the dimensions 23" by 13 1/2".
3. Pin the 2 back flaps overlapping each other to the front piece wrong sides out.

1st flap

2nd flap overlapping 1st flap

*I decided to make another pillow cover before bedtime because it was so easy, it would have taken even less time but my "helper" was having a few issues*

4. Stitch around the sides, backstitch the overlapping flaps for extra security.

5. Cut off the corners to allow for a square corner.

6. Turn your cover inside out.

Hope that made some sense, Happy Monday (almost Tuesday) everyone!!

ashley


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