I get this question a lot: “How do I easily make a pillow cover?” or “Is it difficult to make these nice pillow covers?” Most of the time people ask me this when I’m displaying my self made throw pillows at a fair or when I’m giving a workshop.
The answer to any of these questions is: It depends. Ok, that’s not worth much. What does it depend upon? Well, on the level of difficulty you want yourself.
Lets Get More Detailed
I hope you’re still reading, because I might have confused you a bit. It works like this:
- If you want an easy pillow cover you don’t even need a sewing machine. You can even fold it. How easy is that?
- If you want a pretty colored print, with the seems nicely done, add a sipper and even more fancy stuff it becomes a little bit more difficult (well, difficult is relative; it depends largely on your level of experience).
- The next level (and this is again a personal preference) is if you choose to make a Leather pillow cover. Leather has its own difficulties in that usually the material is thicker, which usually requiers using a sewing machine.
And then there are all the options in between (e.g. a self folded pillow cover with a zipper that needs to be sewn in).
Self Folding a Pillow Cover
This is of course the easiest way to make your own toss pillow cover. It is pretty much the same as folding your own envelope for a letter. It’s a bit hard to explain, so you might want to do a YouTube search, because this a real visual thing (Click Here to go to a list of YouTube videos that will show you exactly what I mean).
Using a Sewing Machine
The best results when making anything with fabric is of course with a sewing machine. No surprise there. The enormeous improvement these machines have gone through the last couple of years is amazing. They are probably more sophisticated now than the rocket we shot to the moon some 40 years ago!
Learning how to work with a sewing machine if you’ve done so can be a daunting task. I’ve found an excellent website that will teach you all the things a beginner sewer needs to know. Plus, on the same site, there are a number of reviews of sewing machines. All video’s and all well explained. Click here to visit that instructional sewing website.
Get Started
What can I say, the best we to learn how to swim is not to talk about it, but to get in the water. So if you’re new to sewing and want to make your own pillow covers, go out there, get yourself some fabric, watch a video here and there and be proud of yourself!
Good Luck!
Toss Pillows 