Envelope Pillow Covers

          True confession: I’m obsessed with pillows. Truer confession: I hate buying them. They are unreasonably expensive. So, I settled for a menagerie of discount pillow finds that I change the covers on whenever I feel like it! Presto – new pillows! The easiest and cheapest way to change up a room – especially with this tutorial!

          Frequently, I find pillows on the clearance rack because they’re “out of season”, and most of the time you can take the covers off of them, leaving you with a pillow form that is much cheaper than buying one at a craft store. 

          I've started to get sick of my summer pillows lately, especially now that fall is starting to creep in. So today I replaced a few of my envelope pillow covers with new ones in a cute fall fabric! An envelope pillow cover is essentially a pillow wrap. With only one piece of fabric and four straight lines to sew, it doesn’t get easier. Plus, it’s incredibly simple to remove and wash!

Envelope Pillow Cover

You will need:

              Pillow form
              Enough fabric to wrap around pillow  - approximately half yard for 18x18in pillow form
              The usual suspects: thread, pins, sewing machine         

  

Step 1: Wrap fabric around pillow form to ensure fit. (here, I just used my old pillow cover as a template)

Step 2: Finish long ends of fabric by folding in and sewing approximately ½ inch

Step 3: With inside out, fold cover so that ends overlap. Make sure to keep pillow size in mind (i.e. don’t overfold, because the pillow won’t fit inside later! Try putting pillow inside and pinning ends together to ensure good fit, then slide out pillow.).

 Step 4: Pin and sew open ends closed.

Step 5: Turn pillow cover right side out!

Just tuck pillow inside!

Note: You can always overlap the fabric more than I did - the preference is all yours. And remember, you can cover any pillow with this cover, it doesn't have to be a pillow form; just check to make sure that your underlying pillow pattern doesn't show through.

Total expense: 1/2 yard of fabric! BAM!