How to sew a pillow cover

If you have been wondering how to sew a pillow case or a pillow cover you have definitely come to the right place. When I googled on the Net I did not really find anything on this topic so I thought I must put it down in my sewing blog for all to see and use. The finished size of this pillow cover is 24½” x 17¾" but the usable size is 22¼” x 15¼”. You may adjust it as per your requirements. 

To begin, you have to cut 3 pieces; one each of the following dimensions.

      (1)    27” x 21” – this will form the top of the pillow cover on to which you might like to do some embroidery  whether hand embroidery or machine embroidery.

      (2)    17” x 23½” – this will be the back of the pillow cover.

      (3)    17” x 5½” – this is the flap which goes between the front and back of the pillow, keeping the pillow out of view.

Using the second and third pieces, sew a ½” hem on one 17” side of each.

Now, taking the first piece which is the top and on which you might have done some embroidery, cut off isosceles triangles (2 equal sides) from the four corners.

You can get the four corners of the rectangular piece to meet by folding it first horizontally and then vertically. Mark a dot 2½” on either side of the corner and join the two dots. Cut off the triangles.

Fold each corner like so making sure that right sides are facing each other and sew a ¼” seam as shown in the picture below, stopping about ¼” from the edge.

Repeat for the other three corners. The result will be as in the picture below.

Turn the corners inside out so you have what it looks like in the picture below.

 Insert the smallest piece right side facing upwards into the largest piece/top as shown in the picture below.

As you can see in the picture below, the flap/smallest piece is place quite close to the fold.

 

This is how it looks.

With the right side of the third and remaining piece facing upwards, place it on top of the assembly already made with its hem resting on the flap and just below the folded hem of the top embroidered piece. Refer picture below. Make sure it is placed so as to leave uniform margins on the left and right (longer sides).

You can see the whole view below.

Gently ease this third piece under the hem.

When you are done it should look like it is in the picture below.

Pin the hem all round as shown in the picture.

Finally, sew a zigzag stitch all round removing the pins as you go. I set the zigzag stitch length to 2 and the width to 3.

This is how it looks on the under side.

 And here is how the flap looks.

Happy sewing!