One of the things that is most needed in my living room spruce up is some new throw pillows. I had a pair of blue ones on our leather chairs. They were the right size and shape and in good condition, but they were pretty dull, so I decided to recover them.
I found this fabric on the clearance rack at Jo-Ann for $3/yard. I bought it before I knew what I was going to do with it, so I only bought a yard. Luckily, that’s all I needed!
I measured and cut a piece of fabric that would wrap around the pillow then folded it in half. Then I machine sewed one of the short sides and the long side creating sort of a pillowcase.
It was obvious to me after sewing through two layers of the fabric that I was not going to be able to machine sew through four layers on the other short side to close up the pillow. I was going to have to hand sew the pillow shut. So I sewed the remaining raw edges with an arrowhead stitch to prevent them from fraying too much.
I turned the cover right-side out and slipped it on the pillow.
Then I folded the open edges inside and hand sewed them closed using what I think is called a blind stitch. (I weaved the needle back and forth through the two layers of fabric inside the pillow so you can’t see the thread.)
I love this fabric (did you spot the birds?) and $3 for two “new” pillows? Um, yeah, I think I can afford that.
I did not see the birds! Fabulous fabric, Erin. I never can score any fabric- well that is not gaudy for a good price.
I always wondered how they finished pillows- blind stitch, huh? I’ll have to check that out.
Most times I look for clearance fabric, I don’t find anything. (Acutally, I think this goes for searching the clearance racks for anything.) Today I was looking for some cheap curtain fabric because I need a lot of it, but came up empty handed. Just have to keep looking!
I usually can machine stitch a pillow closed, but the fabric was too thick to do that on these. If you’re stuffing it yourself, you can just leave a small gap, but with an insert, one whole side will need to be stitched up.