Make your old pillows look like new...

...with easy pillowcases!

Sorry it’s been awhile, a week ago was spring break for us so we spent the week painting the house. This week after work was then spent painting some more and putting stuff back together. We still have a LONG way to go, but it’s a start!

For today’s project I’m going to show you how I fixed up my parents old couches for our new home. We bought brand new slip covers. They are kind of a pain because if we want them to look nice we have to continually stuff them back into the creases but they are way nicer than the old fabric.

The old pillows looked awful on the new slip covers so I decided that I was going to cover them with pillow cases. This way if we got tired of the color or we spilled something on them (very likely), we could easily just slip the cover off and wash it.

I decided that I wanted a bright color so I bought this awesome orange fabric from Walmart. It was $2 for the whole bolt so it was totally worth it. 

Here is how I made the pillow cases. The first one took me awhile but after that I could whip them out in 10 minutes flat. Once you understand the process it’s pretty easy to follow.

First you’ll need to measure your pillow. I stretched my measuring tape across the middle of the pillow from seam to seam. My pillow ended up being 15 inches across. 

Next determine how much fabric you will need. I ended up cutting a 36” x 16” piece of fabric. I calculated my dimensions by multiplying the 15” side by 2 and adding 4 inches for an overlap. For some reason I also added an extra two inches, totally not needed as my pillow cases were a little large in the end.

Hem the two shorter sides. Lay the fabric right side down and pin the short side, in my case the 15” side. I measured and pinned a 1” hem on each side. Iron them flat. On one side, pin a ½” hem. This will be the side that shows on the back of your pillow. Sew both of the hems. 

Sew the two side seams together. I laid the fabric right side up with the long side towards me. I folded the side with the extra hem on it a little more than half way over. Next, fold the other side over so that it over laps the first side. Make sure that the fabric still measures the same size as your pillow from fold to fold. Pin each side seam and sew with a ½” seam.

Finally, turn the pillow case right side out, and push the corners out. Put your old pillow in its new pillow case!

Such an improvement over the old pillows! It’s funny because Keeton was worried about the “crazy” color but he really likes them. I think I might add some chocolate brown pillows behind the orange to calm them down a little.

BEFORE

AFTER

So much better right?  

Now, what do I do with all of the leftover orange fabric?

Have a great day all!

Jennifer