Category — Mama Sews

Hi friends! I have such an exciting announcement!

I’ve started a new feature that I like to call Mama Sews. For a while now, I’ve been wanting to learn more about sewing. More and more I’ve run across cute projects online that I’ve wanted to give a try, but I have lacked the sewing skills needed to even start them. So, I thought it was about time to call in my Mama for some sewing lessons! She’s an expert sewer and quilter. When I say expert I mean it; she can sew anything and everything!

I’ll walk you through projects, step-by-step with the help of my mom. Many of you out there are expert seamstresses yourself, but I’m hoping these tutorials will be a benefit to beginners like me.

We’re kicking off Mama Sews with a pillow cover tutorial! Being a newlywed, many of my pillows have been acquired. They’re mismatched and I even have some that are just plain pillow forms. Creating a pillow cover is a simple and inexpensive solution to spicing up a room. It sure beats spending extra on a store-bought pillow.

P.S. Don’t be intimidated by the length of this post. There’s lots of photos and detailed description to help you along the way!

Here’s what you’ll need to get started:
-A sewing machine (that’s threaded)
-Scissors
-Straight pins
-Batting, a pillow form, or batting from an old pillow
-Fabric (see below for measurements)

1. You will need to purchase the correct yardage of material. This is important!
(Tip: Fabric is measured in yards. 1 yard = 36 inches)
The pillow I am making is 17 square inches. We added a 1/2″ seam allowance . That means we needed a 18×18″ piece of fabric for each side.
(What’s a seam allowance you ask? It’s the area between your stitching and the cut edge. You can’t sew right to the edge so you have to allow for a little extra room.)

2. Cut the fabric. Since we had plenty of yardage, we folded the fabric in half before cutting it so that we would only have to sew three edges instead of four. But, you can always cut 2 pieces and sew all the edges if it’s easier for you to figure out.

3. Next, put the right sides together so that the back side is facing out. If you folded your fabric, like us, fold it in the opposite direction. Pin the fabric together.
The point of pinning it is so when you sew it together, the pieces don’t slide around.

Before you start sewing, you’ll want to make sure you leave a small space along one of the edges where you don’t sew.

4. Sew along the edges, making sure you are sticking to your 1/2″ seam allowance.

5. This part is a little tricky. Since you left an open un-sewn space, you should have thread on each side of the gap that is not tied off. You’ll want to tie it off. If you notice, one thread is on one side of the fabric and the another on the other side. You will want them both on the same side in order to tie together. Simply put your needle through the last stitch and pull it out. You should now have both the pieces of thread on the same side of the fabric.
If you can’t get it down, just tie both the pieces of thread together with the fabric in between. It was cause a “bunch” but it will be on the inside anyways.

Tie it!

6. Cut off the edge of each corner, making sure not to cut over the seam. This helps the pillow to have nice pointy corners that don’t have excess fabric inside.

7. Turn it inside out.

8. Poke your fingers in the corners to make sure they’re pointy.
This is, in fact, the technical way of saying it.

9. We decided to use the batting from an old pillow so we cut it open. But, you can use store bought stuffing or use a pillow form. Or, take a pillow that’s already covered and re-cover it.

10. We pulled out the batting and stuffed it into our new pillow.

11. Next, fold the fabric in the opening of the pillow over 1/2″. You can iron it if it’s easier, but we just “finger pressed” it.

Now the opening should look like this.

12. Pin it together.

13. Sew the edge together. Some people prefer to sew this part by hand because it can be difficult. We did it by machine.

14. Tie it off like you learned before!

15. Give it a few good smacks and a fluff.
This part is extremely important. Don’t skip it!

You’ve got yourself a new pillow! Easy peasy!
Still have questions? Stuck? Leave a comment! Want a tutorial on a project you’ve been dying to do? Let me know!