In a world where we have so much stuff (and so much trash), upcycling has become the way to give something old a new face lift, complete with a revitalized sense of purpose. With our Upcycling ‘Round the House series, we’ll take you into each room of the house and present one project that turns something so-so into something oh-so-grand. 

Brighten Your Bedroom with Decorative Pillow Covers

So far, we’ve taken an old ladder and made it useful in the living room for storage, and we used onion skins and naturally dyed table linens for the dining room. Now, it’s time to upcycle something you currently have into something fresh and useful for the bedroom.

For most of us, our clothes closets are frequent targets for spring cleaning. Sometimes, we hold onto shirts or dresses past their due dates because we love the pattern and Fabric so much! But ask yourself a few questions. Have you worn that shirt in the last couple of years? Is that dress really ever going to fit again?

Thankfully, you can capture that pattern, color, and nostalgia you love so much by turning it into something with purpose. Before you send your clothes to Goodwill (which is still a good idea for MOST of those clothes you don’t wear), we will show you how to combine those darling old clothes you love so much with old Pillow forms to create one-of-a-kind pillows for your bed!

What You Need

Very simple sewing skills are needed to complete this project. We don’t recommend sewing it by hand, but if you can do a simple straight top stitch on a sewing machine, then you’re in business.

When selecting clothing to cut up to make your pillows, try to use only materials made of cotton, rayon, or linen. Fabrics such as spandex, polyester, and jersey stretch too much and will not give you a clean crisp pillow front you want.

Gather up your boring decorative pillows and decide which ones you want to give a facelift. You’ll also need a ruler, pencil, scissors, and sewing pins.

Getting Started

1) Start by measuring the length of your decorative pillow. The one I recovered is 16 Inches x 16 inches. You will want to create a pillow front one-half an inch longer in length on each side than the size of your pillow, keeping in mind seam allowances when the front is sewn to the back.

2) Decide on the design you wish to use for the front. The one in this example is a more complicated flying geese block, a traditional quilt block that has been around for more than one hundred years! But you don’t have to be so fancy. Perhaps an easy striped block pattern suits your liking, or a simple Square patchwork design. You can also use a wide variety of your clothing scraps to complete the project when making a cover from various scraps. We will walk you through making a square patchwork cover.

3) Assess your clothing and determine what and where you will cut. Using the front and backs of shirts, or the entire width of a skirt, gives you the most amount of fabric, which is ideal to work with (especially for newbies). Sleeves present more of a challenge, as the amount of fabric when a sleeve is opened up isn’t that wide.

4) For the block in the image below, the red and white stripe is from a dress of my daughters, and the cream colored fabric with small black dots is from a skirt of mine. The aqua fabric is new fabric. Think outside of the box, and combine your upcycled clothes with fabric you might already have.

To Make A Square Patchwork Pillow Cover

Since the pillow is 16 inches square and you want uniformity in your design, let’s make the Pillow Cover with 16 squares, each measuring 4 ½ inches. Seam allowances are usually ¼ inch, so when you sew each square together, you will eventually lose a half inch on each side.

1) Using your ruler, draw lines that measure 4 ½ inches by 4 ½ inches, cutting accurate. You could use 4 different squares from 4 items of clothing, 16 different patterns, or just 2 different patterns, depending on how you want your design to look.

2) Start sewing your squares together, four in a column.

3) Make sure and iron out the seams on the back of your blocks.

4) Once you have four strips that are four squares long, then you can pin each row of blocks, right sides facing, and sew them together. Eventually you will have a 16 ½ inch square.

Create the Envelope Back of Your Cover

Now that you have the front made, it’s time to make the back.

1) Preferably using new fabric, or larger cuts of old clothing taken from the back of shirts, skirts or dresses, measure out the two cuts that will make your envelope enclosure on the back.

2) Measure and cut two pieces of fabric at 16 ½  inches x 13 inches.

3) On the length of the fabric that is 16 ½  inches long, fold the edge over one inch, then over again and iron it.

4) Pin along this edge and sew, making a nice thick hem. The shorter length of your back pieces should now measure 11 inches x 16 ½ inches.

5) Do the same for the other piece of fabric. The small detail in hemming the edges finishes the envelope well.

Time to Sew Your Pillow Cover

Now that you have the front piece with the design, and the two back envelope pieces, it’s time to sew it all in unison.

1) Lay the right side (the pretty side) facing up on a flat surface.

2) Then take the two backing pieces and lay them pretty side down, with each hem overlapping one another, and each raw edge lined up with the raw edge of the pillow front.

3) Carefully pin the two sides together.

4) Sew around the edges of your cover, making sure the two back flaps are nicely connected to the front side.

Your Pillow Cover is Done!

Turn the cover inside out like you do a pair of socks. Place one side of your decorative pillow into the envelope and stuff the other side into it. It should fit perfectly!

Enjoy your new textile, letting those favorite clothes of yours live on forever!

Keep an eye out for our next Upcycling ‘Round the House post, as we head into the bathroom.

Images courtesy of Ebony Porter.