Why?
Why take the time to sew a French seam on the INSIDE?
If these pillow covers were for my own home, I wouldn’t take the time. Since they are for my customers, I will take the time to rid these pillows of as many raw edges as possible. And, honestly, it’s a pretty simple upgrade that doesn’t take much additional time.
(This pillow cover is listed here.)
This all started on Instagram with a conversation about ‘knife-edge’ pillows. A local designer asked if I’d sew a few knife edge pillows for her. After looking up the definition via Google (because I had no idea what that meant), I was a bit perplexed about what knife edge really meant. I found a few conflicting definitions. I started a conversation on Instagram and Julia from Red Rainboots Handmade left a comment that made the most sense. (She makes beautiful barn quilts.)
Once again, I was reminded about how much I have to learn and how far I still have to go in this vast trade called quilting. In an effort to apply some of these tips I gathered from a few fell Instagram friends, I attempted to upgrade my quilted pillow covers.
The raw edges on the insides of my pillow covers had bothered me for a while and after a bit of research and a few discussions, I experimented a bit and found a method that works for me.
How to sew French seams on the inside of your pillow covers:
These steps assume you already know how to sew in a zipper or sew an envelope pillow cover.
1. Every pillow cover starts with some version of a front panel and a back panel. Here are two front panels. (Mine happen to be quilted panels.)
2. You can skip this step, but I choose to draw tapered lines on my pillow cover. This eliminates the ‘super pointy corner look.’ I move from a quarter inch seam allowance to half inch seam allowances at the corners.
The important part here: draw your lines on the right sides of your fabric. Face up.
3. Here is where everything starts to look backward. Sew your pillow panels together with the front side face up and the back side face out. (Using my method with zippers, my zipper is already installed at this point.)
Yes, sew them together as if your pillow has all the raw edges exposed.
4. Trim carefully and closely to the seam you just sewed. Raw edges are still exposed here.
5. Turn your pillow cover wrong side out. This is what my pillow cover looks like wrong side out. No tattered fibers!
6. Sew around the perimeter of your pillow cover using an approximate quarter of an inch seam allowance. This is creating a finished edge on the outside of your pillow.
(If you use zippers, you only sew three sides. If you are creating an envelope back, you’d sew around the entire perimeter.)
7. Flip your pillow right side out. You can see me holding my pillow cover open. (I use leftover fabrics on the insides of my pillow…that’s why you see right sided fabric in there.) And do you see any tattered raw edges? Absolutely not. Clean seams on the inside.
And clean seams on the outside.
This is also a great technique to use on homemade pillow cases for your bed. Leave me your feedback. Worth it or not worth the extra effort?
Hi! How do you eliminate the bulky corners? For quilted covers, you need a lining right? After sewing half inch around the perimeter, the corners turned out really bulky. Any tips?
Hi Echau, I have battled bulky corners for years, and I’m not sure there is anyway around them with you have a three layer pillow. The French seams give the pillow a flawless look even on the inside, but I agree, they will bulk up the corners. After all your work with the French seams, you could cut the corners at a diagonal to reduce some bulk. Use a butter knife or hera marker to help gently push out the corners. Pros and cons to so many things, right?!
I love your tutorials! To do a zippered pillowcase with french seams, how much bigger do you cut your fabric? For an 18″ square pillow, what are the dimensions of the fabric before you start sewing the front and back together? If you do the zipper last, how do you finish the edges on that side? I can’t think of a way to do french seams on the side with the zipper…
Thanks!
Hi Renee, whenever I’m finishing a pillow with French seams, I make it about one inch larger than I want it finished. This gives me enough excess to sew a scant quarter inch around while right side out and almost a full half inch after turning the pillow wrong side out.
As far as the zipper, you’re right. I don’t believe there is a good way to ‘French seam’ a zipper. Because I attempt to rid my pillows of any unfinished edges, I tend to hem the front and back just on the side where I’m going to insert the zipper. I just fold the fabric over about a quarter of an inch, iron it, and sew it down. Then I use that finished edge for the zipper.
I hope that’s helpful!
Thank you very much for sharing!
You are welcome Meghan!
You know that emoji that looks astounded? That was me! I tried the french seam last night and I LOVE IT! Sometimes I do binding that solves the problem too but this french seam is WONDERFUL! So yeah… that is how I feel and THANKS for sharing that!
I’m so glad Nicole! I’ll have to try the binding technique on the pillows too. Great idea!