Life has quieted down a bit in our household. Here in the Midwest we are having some perfect mild temperatures. I love having the windows open whenever the weather cooperates, and we have had plenty of cooperative weather lately. It’s been lovely.
My husband recently finished an elevated playhouse for our boys, and he installed a sand box underneath the house. We have spent many hours in that sand box, and the weather has been perfect for it. My seven month old, on the other hand, is not perfect for the sand box. He really really really likes the sand. I, however, don’t enjoy cleaning all the sand out of his mouth, ears, finger nails, diaper, and pants.
Despite trying to get outside a lot lately to enjoy the weather, I did use a nap time to finish up this pillow.
We put up a post a couple days ago about sewing this patchwork pillow top. Today I will show you how to finish this pillow top into an envelope pillow cover. If you’re not interested in patchwork, you can use any fabric for the top of the pillow.
1. Lay the fabric you want to use for your envelope closure out flat on your table. Lay your pillow top on top of that fabric.
This top is approximately 12 inches tall by 18 1/2 inches wide.
2. Cut TWO pieces of fabric. Each piece needs to be approximately 2/3s the size of your pillow top. These two pieces will over lap creating the envelope portion of your cover.
If your pillow is rectangular in shape like mine, be sure to cut two pieces each 2/3s of the length of the pillow (like I did in the below picture).
3. Fold over about a quarter of an inch of fabric on one end of each piece of fabric. Iron the small hem, and stitch it down. This way you have finished edges on the back of your pillow.
4. Lay your fabrics right side together. In other words, lay your pillow top face up. Lay one piece of your envelope closure fabric face down. Lay the second piece of your envelope closure fabric face down. Note that the ends you hemmed should be in the middle of your pillow.
5. Pin around the perimeter of our fabric. Sew around the entire perimeter while your pillow is wrong side out. Sew with a quarter of an inch seam allowance. Flip your pillow right side out.
This is the front of your pillow cover.
This is what the back should look like.
Next up I stuffed my pillow into my new pillow cover. I like a tight and crisp pillow cover. (Nothing is worse than a droopy pillow cover.) When I sew pillow covers, I usually measure my fabric almost a half of an inch less than what the pillow measures.
A nice crisp fitting pillow cover. 🙂
This will soon head to our bed because it coordinates with the quilt on there…but, since the bed is not made today, I will take a picture with it on there another day. 🙂
