Pillow Talk

Fabric Mart is having an incredible Home Dec sale right now, and I ordered two yards of fabric for recovering some throw pillows- 1 solid and 1 print. The one thing that I have learned over the years in making pillow covers, is that the home dec fabric really is superior to using regular cotton fabric. Pillows actually take quite a bit of stress, and regular cotton fabric will tear and wrinkle, but home dec fabric doesn't.

I use down pillow forms that I got from IKEA in various shapes and sizes. I like down-filled pillows because they seem to last longer than regular polyester filled pillows, and I can just change the covers on them. And you cannot beat IKEA's price on them! They are the same price that you would pay for polyester filled pillows at a regular fabric store. Again, you really need home dec fabric to use down pillows, as it is dense and won't let the pointy feathers through. Those feathers will manage to get through once in a while, but not often.

For the covers, I don't do anything fancy. I just cut a square or rectangle the size of the form plus 1" for seam allowances. I serge the raw edges, and use the selvages for edges if I can because that will be the best edge finish. I insert a zipper on one side- whatever zippers I have on hand.
Here I used some brass zippers that I got in an assortment from Sew True Sewing Supply.
I don't see the assortment there anymore, but they are still a pretty great price for a very heavy duty zipper.

I was able to get 3 covers from each yard. The geometric print was $5, and the solid was $3.50, so with the zippers included, I was able to get 6 covers for less than $15 total and less than 2 hours of work! Not bad for a fresh look to the living room. Isn't that right, Fred (our cat)?