DIY No Sew Pillow Covers - Homey Oh My

I’ve been itching to update the pillows in my living room, and I came across a dilemma I’m wondering if you can relate to… Why is it so hard to find pillow cases in simple patterns and colors??  Or I guess the difficulty comes in hoping someone out there mass produced exactly what I envisioned in my head, ha!  This situation absolutely calls for a DIY.

I had shared a no sew pillow cover a while back in a post about using up leftover fabric, and it ended up being the most popular idea from that post, so in addition to feeding my pillow addiction, I thought I’d do an updated tutorial with more details on the how-to.

Materials: -fabric (I got the ikat polka dot fabric here and the striped fabric here– this pillow size is 16 x 26 in.  I painted the purple one, which I’ll briefly show in a bit) –Unique Stitch Adhesive -fabric scissors (I LOVE the way cutting fabric with fabric scissors feels… weird?) -ruler -pencil -iron

For the ikat polka dot pillows, the pillow inserts are 20 x 20 in., so I measured and cut out a 20 x 20 in. piece and two 15 x 20 inch pieces after ironing the fabric.  This will be an envelope style pillow, which is the easiest way to go for no sew.

Starting with the 15 x 20 in. pieces, I folded back about an inch on one of the 20 in. sides of each piece and ironed it down.  Then I applied the Unique Stitch under the fold to glue it down.  This glue is my secret weapon to no sew projects because it holds SO well.  I’ve found that the key is to apply enough so that it lightly soaks through the layers of fabric.  If I can feel the stickiness of the glue on my fingers as I press down on the fabric after, I know the job is done.

I lined up a 15 x 20 in piece with the top edge of the 20 x 20 in. piece with the fabric faces facing each other.  I glued the fabric pieces together where the red lines are in the photo above, which are supposed to be about a quarter inch away from the edges.  Then I glued on the other 15 x 20 in. piece lined up with the bottom of the 20 x 20 in. piece.  The folded edges of the 15 x 20 in. pieces should be overlapped.

I let the glue dry for at least a couple hours before turning the covers inside out and stuffing them with the pillows. Karate chop that pillow and it’s done!

Now here’s another dilemma I encountered… Why is it so hard to find fabric in simple patterns and colors??  Maybe this next one isn’t as simple as I think it is, but it was simple to create it myself.

All I did was take some plain white fabric, tape on my design with painters tape, then pounce on the paint over it.  I like using the Martha Stewart Satin Paints for fabric since no fabric medium is required.  The color I used is hydrangea purple, which is an unusual choice because I don’t own a single purple thing.  I was really digging the color for this pillow cover though, and the pretty name sealed the deal.  This cover by the way is for an 18 x 18 in. pillow, and the envelope flaps were cut to 13 x 18 in. each.

I’m really liking the way the purple looks on my red couch, and of course the black and white never fails to please me.  If you feel like the ikat polka dot pillow looks familiar, it might be because you saw the pattern in the background of this post.

**Quick pillow tip- If you’re looking for down-filled pillows, try the clearance section of HomeGoods, TJ Maxx, or any of the other stores like those.  The pillow covers will be ugly, BUT, you’ll be getting the down-filled pillow inside them for cheap and then making your own custom pillow covers, like I did with this project!

Which of these three pillow patterns is your favorite?  My boyfriend said the purple one was his favorite.  Another unusual development!

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• DIY No Sew Tote Bag
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