new pillows!

Recovering our pillows has been on my list for far too long. Somehow it always gets pushed down the list in favor of a new quilt (or new Linden sweatshirt, if I’m being honest!). The other day a neighbor and friend asked for a little lesson on making zippered pillow covers and I thought I had best brush up on my skills before attempting to teach someone else.

Thanks to this, pillow covers got moved to the top of my list and before I knew it, I had 7 pretty new pillows!

At first I was just going to make one practice pillow, so I pulled out some Rifle Paper fabric. Then once I decided to keep going, I gathered some other favorite prints – some more of the Rifle Paper florals, a Skinny LaMinx panel I purchased ages ago at Nido,

some of my favorite Umbrella Prints hearts, and a great handprinted panel from Spin Spin.

I made my own piping for each and inserted an invisible zipper along one side. I read a few pillow tutorials to make sure I was going about it correctly, and ended up mostly following this tutorial by Jona Giammalva.

I love her tip on using a zipper 4″ longer than your pillow (no trying to sew around that pesky zipper pull!), and was surprisingly pleased at how well glue basting worked here. I used it to hold the zipper tape in place and then used it while sewing the two sides of the pillows together. I think it really helped make this a nearly frustration-free project!

(seriously, mom?)