Pintuck Throw Pillow Case

When Kevin and I first moved in together, we needed a couch.  We immediately agreed on the shape, style, and price point, but there was a week-long debate on what color fabric to get for the couch cover.  He wanted light khaki, while I wanted dark espresso.  We couldn’t come to an agreement one way or the other so what you see below is our compromise:

Smack-dab in the middle.  Kevin’s mom got us the throw blanket you see in the background, and I decided we needed a couple of throw pillows.  After doing some light browsing online, I quickly realized I didn’t want to pay $38 for one decorative pillow that I couldn’t even take the case off to wash if it got dirty.  It was time to DIY something.  I bought two throw pillows from Jo-Ann Fabric, and two different colors of cotton fabric that tied in with the throw blanket – all for under $20.

This tutorial is for a pillow case for a 15″x15″ throw pillow.  You’ll have to adjust your measurements accordingly if your pillow is a different size.

SUPPLIES:

• One piece of fabaric cut to 24″x24″ (for a 15″x15″ pillow)
• Two pieces of fabric cut to 17″x14″ each
• Fabric marker

DIRECTIONS:

Front of the Pillow:

1. Cut a piece of fabric that measures 18″×18″. The extra room allows for the fabric you lose when doing the pintucks as well as the inseam when you sew your pieces together.
2. Plan your pintucks.  Place the fabric right side down and mark where you want to put your pintucks with a dot, spacing them out to make a diagonal-square pattern.  I spaced everything about 4″ apart in alternating rows.

   

3. Grab a small piece of fabric where you drew your dot. Twist about one 1/2” inch. Pin to hold and you’ll sew a straight line right where the pin is.  No worries if it’s ugly, since that’s the back side!

   

4. Repeat steps in a diamond pattern and you will start to see beautiful pin tucks!

   

Assemble the Pillowcase:

1. Trim your pintucked front piece of fabric down to 17″×17″, keeping the pintucked area centered.
2. Lay piece of pintucked fabric so that the pretty side faces up.  Then lay the two back pieces right side facing down.
3. Pin all 4 outer sides together and sew a 1/4” inseam on all 4 outer sides.
4. Flip inside out and slip on to your pillow!

I made these over a year ago, and they miraculously are still in good shape, even after some machine washings.  If you make these with machine washable fabric, just throw them in a garment bag before you put them in the washer and dryer to help protect the pintucks.