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DIY: Sew a Simple Pillow Cover with Piping

Hello everyone! Last weekend I made a fun little pillow for my aqua chair. It’s the same pillow form I used at Christmas for my ornament hankie pillow, and I figured instead of packing it away I should just make some different covers for it that I can switch out as the seasons change or the mood strikes. I thought it might be a good idea to take pictures as I went along to create a handy little tutorial for those of you who would like to make your own. Here goes!



Materials Needed:

•16 inch square pillow form
•1 package of piping
•1/2 yard of main fabric (you can find the one I used here)
•1/2 yard of back fabric

Tools Needed:

•A sewing machine
•Scissors
•A zipper foot
•Thread
•Pins
•A ruler
•Marking chalk or pen 

Step 1: Cut out a 17 by 17 inch square from your main fabric.


Step 2: Cut out two 12 by 17 inch rectangles from your back fabric.


Step 3: Fold down 1/2 inch on one long (17 inch) side of each of your back fabric pieces and press with an iron.


Step 4: Fold down another 1 inch and press again.


Step 5: Pin that side as shown.


Step 6: Stitch close to the fold. 
(Note: your stitching should NOT look weird and pucker-y like mine does in the picture. The thread tension was off on my machine and after trying several times unsuccessfully to correct it, I just gave up. It’s in the back anyway, right?)


Step 7: Overlap your two pieces, using the ruler to make sure each side measures 17 inches.



Step 8: Pin the gap shut.


Step 9: Pin the piping to the RIGHT side of your main fabric.

•Pin so that the stitching on the piping is roughly 1/2 inch from the edge of the fabric, with the raw edge of the piping pointing OUT toward the edge of your fabric.


•Have the two ends of the piping overlap somewhere in the center of the bottom side, and overlap them like this. This will ensure that you won’t have one of the ends of the piping sticking out of your seam.


•On the corners, rather than bending or folding it, curve the piping around like so:


This is what it should look like with the piping pinned on:



Step 10: Sew the piping onto the main fabric.

•Put your zipper foot on your machine. It should look something like this:


•Align your needle to stitch slightly to the left of the stitching on the piping. This will ensure that your piping will not have stitching showing when you turn it inside out.


•Do your best to stitch slowly and steadily and keep your stitches to the left of those on the piping, especially around the curves, which can be tricky!

Here’s the other side of the fabric after you’ve sewn on the piping. See that nice clear line?



Step 11: Stitch the main fabric and back fabric together.

•Pin the main fabric to the back fabric, right sides together.



•Now, you’re going to stitch them together, sewing right on top of the line you just made by sewing on the piping.


•During this step, you can usually kind of correct any wonky spots on the first stitching, like I did here:


•If you would like, at this point you can trim the seams down and finish them with a serger, zig-zag stitch, or pinking shears.

Step 12: Take your pins out, turn your pillow cover right-side-out, stick it on your pillow form, and enjoy!



I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Feel free to ask any questions or clarifications in the comments.

Oh yes, and have a very Happy Tuesday!