Items You’ll Need
Fabric
The way that we made these pillow covers were envelope style. Two seams and you don’t need any amazing sewing skills! I bought plain white fabric from Joanns. I’ve seen people do it on canvas drop cloths before or muslin.
Pillow
My friend bought this inserts off jet, but if you don’t want to order them online Michael’s would also have some.
Paint
I used normal acrylic paint but fabric paint also works. If you want to get real crazy you could also use puffy paint
Brushes
Tape
Cardboard or newspaper
Essentially something to put inside your pillow while you paint so it doesn’t soak through.
Step One
Measure and cut your fabric. My pillow was 16×16 so I cut my fabric 18×18 to leave some extra room for the pillow as well as the envelope. You’ll then fold your fabric with a small overlay and crease. Then fold the longer portion so it is covering the crease and pin.
Step Two
Sew! You are only sewing the left and right sides. You are creating a hem. Once you have sew both edges turn the fabric inside out and TA DA! You have your cover.
Step Three
Decide on what you’re going to paint on your pillow cover. My friends and I searched pinterest for so many ideas on designs. There is some really great options. The one that I’m painting is a dashed line chevron style.
The first time I painted the pillow I used a super thick brush and just sort of winged it. While this totally worked and I loved the way it came out, it wasn’t even at all and I ended up with an extra row. This time around I taped the lines out which ensured that I had an even amount of rows.
Step Four
Get to painting! This is the fun part, and the part that takes the longest. Enjoy it and your company, and don’t try to be a perfectionist. I removed the tape as I went and extended some of the lines, made some thicker or fixed the ends. Do as you like best! I also didn’t have any specific pattern I followed. My goal was to try and not have the same color too close to each other. I chose what color to rotate to next based on that.
Here’s some options of other pillows my friends and I painted.
Step 5
Let it dry, remove the cardboard or whatever you put inside your pillow, and then stuff it!
Let me know if you try this DIY out! I’d love to see some of the patterns y’all come up with.
These look so pretty! What a fun project to do with kids or friends.