Easy Accent Pillow Cover/Sew With Machine or By Hand

The story of this pillow cover starts here↓

And ends here↓

Not that there is anything wrong with the above pillow but when I stumbled across the buffalo check pattern on this Dollar General throw and went apple picking, the Autumn vibes took over!

This is project #2 from this throw purchase. The first is my Cozy Fall Pumpkins which I recently posted. I realized I have no black and white buffalo check decor in my home so I decided to challenge myself and make as many projects as I could to sprinkle around my home from just this one purchase.

I began by cutting my fabric. The dimentions of this pillow were 19 1/2″ x 13.” Remember to add an inch to both the length and width for your seam allowance. This made the front piece of fabric 20 1/2″ x 14.”

TIP: I found the fabric of these throws to be VERY stretchy. A roll cutter was easier to use then scissors.

I use the now cut front piece of fabric as a template for the backing. Now making an envelope back requires two pieces and together they have to be longer then the front piece going from top to bottom. Enough extra so that it can be taken on and off the the pillow  easily yet fold over itself when on the pillow to conceal the entire back. 

I placed the front piece over what was to be the back pieces and matched the length side to side 20 1/2.” Top to bottom I just added and extra 5″ of fabric which will be used to form the envelope pocket.

Okay, these are the two back pieces one over lapping the other, both laid over the front piece. The back piece was cut in half through the middle from side to side.

I gave each of the back pieces a seamed edge going from side to side to reinforce the envelope and help prevent fraying. If this pillow was going to be anything more then decorative I would have folded the edge over on itself twice.

I used a plain straight stitch to make the seams which ended up, to my surprise, stretching out my fabric quite a bit! Maybe taking the time to iron it very flat may have helped so next time Ill have to give that a try. What I also discovered was the zig zag stitch didn’t stretch the fabric. So…lesson learned. These two pieces thankfully will be on the back so if the didn’t lay down nice and flat they wouldn’t show any way. Pressing on…

 

I then laid the front piece down and each of the back pieces on top with fold over edges of the seam facing out or up and what would be the good finished sides facing in.  Once everything was pinned in place, I used the zig zag stitch on my machine to close all the edges around the entire perimeter of the pillow. 

To finish up I clipped off the extra threads and cut down the corners before turning the pillow case right side out.

As luck would have it I need to stretch the cover over the pillow a bit so the snug fit took up the extra slack I ended up with on the two seams in the back. Score! Sometimes things just work out:) 

So I’m enjoying my little buffalo check throw challenge and eager to get something else made out of the left over fabric I still have.

Project #1: I made three of these pumpkins.

Project #2

I hope your inspired to have some fun and get into some easy projects for the upcoming seasons with fabrics that you love:)

Thank you for stopping by:)

Roni♥