From trash to treasure: How to Sew Easy Removable Throw Pillow Covers

How to turn boring, dated (of just plain ugly) throw pillows into something beautiful and new!

I wanted to add bright colors to our living space, but I'm not brave enough to paint a wall vivid colors. It's too permanent. I thought making new throw pillow covers would be an easy, low-risk way to experiment adding more color to our space. 

This seriously took me only 15 minutes per pillow (except the first one I made- I had to unpick the seam after sewing the incorrect sides together. Woopsies! Since you have these directions, you won't make my same mistakes, right?).

Here's how to make your own easy throw pillow covers in less than ten steps.

Supplies:

• A 6/10 yard of 55″ fabric (get more fabric if you're making a pillow larger than 18 inches across)
• A half yard of 55" plain canvas or duck cloth for the back of the pillow
• A drinking glass and pencil
• A sewing machine, iron, ironing surface, pins, scissors and thread
• An ugly throw pillow waiting for a new life (if you don't already own one, thrift stores are a great place to pick them up!)

Step 1

Purchase your fabric. I found ours at JoAnns in the outdoor upholserty section. I wanted super durable fabric that could hold up to a lot of cleanings and abuse. I absolutely fell in love with this cheerful waterproof/stain-proof paisley:

I had one small problem: It was priced at $44/yard- YIKES! 

Lucikly it was 50% off, and I only needed a 1/2 yard, so my total was only $10. That gave me enough fabric to create two large pillows and one smaller lumbar pillow.

Step 2

Measure the pillow you will be using for your pillow form. Add one inch to your measurement (this gives you room for the 1/2 inch hem later).

Step 3

Measure and cut the fabric for the pillow cover. You'll need three pieces to make the cover- one front piece and two back pieces.

My pillows were 18 inches square, so I cut my front piece of fabric to be 19 inches square

The two back pieces will need to be as long as the front piece and wide enough so they will overlap. Make sure they have several inches of extra width or else it won't close properly. In my case, the back pieces are 19 inches long. One back piece is 7 inches wide and the other piece is 15 inches wide.

Step 4

For nice-looking corners, place a cup on the corner of your fabic and trace the curve with a colored pencil. This is your guideline for trimming the corners. Mark all four corners of the square piece of fabric and only two corners on one long edge for each rectangle

The trimmed fabric should look like this:

Notice that the back pieces of fabric only have two corners trimmed. 

Step 5

Since the straight edges of the rectangles will be exposed, we’ll use a more polished hem. Fold about 1/4″ – 3/8″ of the edge over twice to completely encase the raw edge and stitch it down with a straight stitch.This gives a clean edge for your envelope.

Step 6

Pin the two back pieces, inside out, to the front piece. Make sure the sewn seam of the two back pieces overlap in the middle of the pillow.

Step 7

Sew around the outer seam with a 1/2 inch seam allowance.

Step 8

Turn the pillow sham right side out then stuff with the pillow insert.

Step 9

Admire your new pillows before joining them on the couch to curl up with a good book.

See what I mean? This is a very easy throw pillow that can be whipped up in a few minutes. 

In less than one hour I sewed four pillows for my couch. I made a total of 8 pillow covers in one afternoon. 

The new fabrics completely transformed my living room into an eye-catching, cheerful retreat. The best part is that these are removable, so I can wash them or trade them out for a new look later. 

Linked up to: 

http://www.dearcreatives.com/