This year March brings us two holidays, St. Patrick's Day and Easter. So I thought I would combine them both. I love decorating for holidays. Usually on the first day of the month that a holiday is in I change up a few things in the house to make it a little more festive. Our winters are long up here, so it's nice to add a few smiles around the house.
This year I made pillow covers. These covers are really easy to make. I don't know about you, but I have so many pillows in my home, I didn't want to go out and purchase more. So that's why I decided pillow covers would be a great idea. You just slip them over your existing pillows and when the holiday is over, you just remove them and your home goes back to normal. It's practical and fun to make.
A few years ago I was at Hobby Lobby and all their Easter decorations were like 90% off. picked up a really cute pastel table runner for like $1. I didn't know what I was going to do with it, but at that price I had to buy it. When I decided to make these pillow covers, that pastel runner came in handy. It was the right width of my pillows. So I decided that the $1 runner would be part of my pillow covers design.
Dollar Tree always has really cute towels for most holidays. So I purchased a few of their St. Patrick's Day towels and their Easter towels. You can't beat the price. So for about $5 I was able to cover 7 pillows. I love the way they turned out.
I wanted to have a few pillows with a picture sewn on the pillow cover.
These are very easy to make. I found some cute clipart on the internet. Then downloaded it and used my Print Shop program to put the designs on inkjet fabric sheets. You can purchase inkject fabric sheets at any craft store or on the internet.
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Once the designs were printed, I pressed them with an iron to set the ink and then hand stitched them on to the front of the pillow cover.
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I really think they turned out cute. I'm always looking for ideas to make things. Pinterest always has great ideas for holiday crafts and holiday recipes. Now that I'm retired I have lots of time to make things. I'm one of those people that have to keep their fingers working. Sometimes think I go to extremes...LOL! But I love having the time to do all the things I love to do.
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I especially love this design. The bunny is so cute!
Let's Make Some Holiday Pillow Covers...
First off you need to measure your existing pillow (length and width). Below is a chart that shows the size of fabric you need to cut. Most pillow covers will wrap around the pillow. So there will only be one seam. You can also make them with different backs, like I did for the one below. Just remember to add about a 1/2" on both side for the seams.
Once you have cut them out, you will first stitch them together on the top. Then you need to finish off the side seams. I just ironed a 1/4" fold on either side and then folded them over again and stitched them. Once the sides are done, you can finish the seams at the bottom and top. Or if using only one piece of fabric for both sides you will only stitch one seam at the bottom.
After the pillow cover is stitched together and the side seams are complete, you need to add either some ribbons on each side or a piece of the fabric that you are using for the pillow to make ties.
At first I added thin colorful ribbons, but I didn't like the way it looked, so I made ties out of the fabric for some and used wider ribbon for the rest. I thought they looked much better with the wider ties.
I think the thicker ties made a big difference. Make sure you cut the ties long enough to make a bow.
I love they way they turned out. Plus no more buying extra pillows! Just slip them off and you have your original pillows.
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So that's it. A simple project for the holidays.
The pillows add a little spring to a long winter!
Below are projects from last year. You can view the directions on how to make the candle holders in my post called "Cute & Easy Easter Crafts"
One Final Thought...
Well, that's it for today. I love to create and make items that are simple and cute, especially for holidays. If you are interested in making the items above, don't for get to check my post from last year called "Cute & Easy Easter Crafts". Also, I have a couple of posts on making Hershey Nugget Candy Wrappers for St. Patrick's Day and Easter. It's a free download.
