Dream Book Design

DIY No-Sew Pillows

Listen up friends, I am about to tell y’all about the easiest pillows to make..ever. We all know that I am just learning sewing{here and here} and am not ‘the best’ at it yet, so when I found a tutorial on a pillow that required zero sewing, I was all about it.

I know a sewed one looks more sophisticated and slick, but I’m too lazy to do all the work. But I can introduce you to the process of making a sewed pillow if you want to do it yourself. To accurately measure your pillow, use flexible sewing tape. Don’t cut your pillow fabric to fit your pillow insert exactly. Each edge should have a 12″ seam allowance. Smooth out any wrinkles by laying them out on your cutting mat. Deep creases may necessitate the use of an iron or a steamer. Don’t forget to find one of the best fabric cutting machines on the market to cut those straight edges, or you might ruin the fabric. You’ll need two pieces of fabric to make the front and back of your pillow. Place your two pillow fabric pieces right sides together. Use straight pins to keep everything straight while you sew. Attach the felt to the front of your pillow using a sturdy fabric adhesive. Insert your premade pillow form into your pillowcase. If you did not make an envelope back, hand-sew the opening shut with a needle and thread.

Well! For this project (no-sew pillow) you need four things {or really three, you’ll see}:

  1. Pillow of your choice (check the likes of Pillow Insider)
  2. Fabric of any sort {I used a jersey-ish type..so technical I know!}
  3. Scissors
  4. Measuring Tape
You don’t really need measuring tape if you can have enough fabric that you can figure out the cuts by simply using your pillow. Let me explain, to figure out how much fabric you need you simply do three times as wide as your pillow, and twice as tall as your pillow. So say you have a 20×20 pillow form, you would need your fabric to be 60w x 40h. You can get to these measurements by using a measuring tape, or simply by spacing our your pillow on your fabric.

Steps:

-Lay out your pillow on top of your cut fabric:

DIY no sew pillow

-Begin by folding up the bottom half of the fabric {do bottom first in order to make sure that the fabric doesn’t ‘fall’ open once tied}:

DIY no sew pillow
-Fold the top half over the bottom:
how to make a pillow
-Next fold the ends together, kind of like wrapping a present, or a tootsie roll {you and I both know how good tootsie rolls are, right!?}. With my fabric it doesn’t look crisp and clean because its a jersey fabric, but if you used cotton you should be able to get a clean fold:
how to make a pillow
-Lay each side over one another securely:
how to make a pillow
-To finish, tie the sides into a knot. Then knot again. This is your end result:
how to make a no-sew pillow
how to make a no-sew pillow
Melissa Young Photo
In case you were wondering, I ended up using a different pillow form than the one shown. I ended up recovering two pillows that I already had that I didn’t like anymore. Figured I could save the pillows forms for another project! I did make the blue pillow that matches the headboard as well. It was my very first time making a real-big girl-with sewing machine-scary pillow. I used this tutorial here, and it made it as easy as it can be! Still of course having some bumps along the way..such as never being able to have a perfect measurement and cut:
Hope this encourages y’all to try and make your own pillows! Especially the no-sew ones!

Comments

  2. Ashley says

    I say this pillow in one of your pictures the other day…Thanks for “know how”! Im going to the fabric store today to get busy making a few of these!