. . . No Sew Throw Pillows . . .

Say what?   Christmas is over already?  I spent a year getting ready for it!  Buying gifts and crafting and thinking about recipes and it all went by in the blink of an eye. I remember when I was younger I heard older people say how fast time flies and yet it never seemed to move that quickly as a kid, especially at the holidays, but now that I'm older I realize how true that statement is. I marvel at the speed of time these days. There is never enough of it and the time that we do have passes so fast. I can't believe that the Christmas tree is put away and the gifts are all opened and the cookies are gone and I'm now moving on to Valentine's Day ideas.  Despite the brisk passing of time I hope you had a wonderful holiday season!

I am embarrassed to admit I don't sew. I can sew but I don't and that is probably because my mom and grandma are such great sewers that I don't have to. I had my mom make me several throw pillows for my front porch last fall and they were great for that season but now that it is coming up on Valentine's Day my orange and black assortment of pillows just looked funny with my pink and red banner and wreath.  My mom had elbow surgery right after Thanksgiving (really great time of year go be out of commission. Doesn't she know I have crafting and sewing projects that need her assistance. Just kidding) and sewing is out for her and grandma had a million other projects going on. That meant being creative with my pillows and coming up with a no sew idea. This idea worked perfectly and the best part is that I can quickly change out the fabric for any occasion without pestering mom or grandma to sew or to motivate myself to pull out my machine.  Who wants to do that when I have this super easy and super fast alternative for you!  

You will need:

Throw pillow form and it won't matter if it already is covered in fabric.  *If the pillow is already covered make sure the new fabric is dense enough that it won't let the current pillow fabric show through.

 

Fabric for your pillow. Buy enough to extend 3 inches past the pillow on all sides. My square pillow was a 12 inch pillow and a 5/8  yard was perfect to work with. I wouldn't have even needed quite that much but wanted to make sure I had enough.

 

Small ribbon to coordinate with your fabric 

 

Pinking shears to keep the fabric from fraying

 

Ruler 

 Of course I don't take a single picture of me making the square pillow but this will still give you the same idea of how to make the cover no matter if your pillow is square or rectangular in shape.  See this cute fall colored pillow?  It just doesn't work with my Valentine's Day wreath and banner does it?

 Step 1:  Lay your fabric out flat.  I bought 5/8 yard and folded it in half.  I then placed the pillow form on the fabric and measure 3 inches all the way around the pillow and that was where I cut.  Make sure you use pinking shears or the fabric will fray.  I found that a 3 inch excess of fabric was the right amount but you may want yours to be a bit different so just play with it.

Step 2:  Cut the fabric at the designated spots with your pinking shears.

Step 3:  Place the pillow in the center on the wrong side of one panel of fabric.  Place the other panel right side up over the pillow being sure it's centered.

Step 4:  Take your corners and wrap your ribbon around the corners and pull good and tight and knot the ribbon to hold the pillow cover in place.  I know this isn't a very good photo of the ribbon but really it's very simple--cut ribbon and knot each of the corners.  I used really tiny ribbon but you can certainly use what you like.  I wouldn't go too wide with the ribbon because it won't work as well. Tie all 4 corners and fluff the pillow and fabric and you are done!

 Check that out!  Easy peasy and now you can change your pillows for the occasion you are celebrating.

 This is the 12 inch square pillow I mentioned above.  As you can see the idea is the exact same whether you use square or rectangle shaped pillows.

 The black and white polka dot pillow is one that always stays on the porch bench so it's sewn but I like being able to add accent pillows now with this easy idea for no sew pillows.

Love is in the air now!

Simple!  What is your favorite no sew project?  I would love to hear your ideas.

 

If you liked this idea then you will love this No Sew Bench Cushion Cover!  

 

I like being able to quickly change my porch as the season changes and buying vinyl tablecloths and recovering my bench cushion is both easy and cheap!