Simply Beautiful By Angela

creating simple beauty on a budget

Easy Envelope Pillow

When we first bought our couch it came with some really nice, but dark pillows. And since I’m a light and bright kind of girl I set out to find some new ones. But store-bought pillows can get crazy expensive and it can be hard to find what you’re looking for when you have exactly what you want already in mind!
Then I realized that since IKEA sells pillow inserts for super cheap, I could pick out my own fabric and make my own. They sell a 20″ x 20″ for $2.99 and a 16″ x 26″ for $3.99. They also have a 26″ x 26″ for $9.99–a store-bought pillow that big in the store could get expensive!

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Yes, I am in love with IKEA–I could get lost in there for hours although the place drives my husband insane haha.

Anywhoooo…I ordered a few pretty fabrics from fabric.com (another place that I can get lost for hours haha).

I like the idea of envelope pillows because they’re removeable for washing (a must with pets and kids) without the hassel of putting on a zipper. It probably takes a total of 10 minutes to bust one of these out!

Step 1:

Before getting started you will need to measure out and cut your fabric. Instead of adding a seam allowance, I cut the measurements exactly the same as the pillow because I like them to be nice and full.

One piece will need to be the full size of your pillow for the front (20″ x 20″ in this case) and the second piece will need to have added length because you will cut this one in half and it will eventually create your envelope overlap in the back. Make sense?

I think my second piece was 20″ x 28″ (in the picture I had already hemmed my two back pieces so they don’t look as long)

Step 2:

Fold the edge over on the each of the back pieces where you made the cut, pin and sew a hem on each.

Step 3:

Now lay your front piece with the design facing up.

And place each of the back pieces on top of it, both face down so that all of the pieces have the design facing inward. Make sure you have a decent overlap of the two back pieces.


Step 4:

Place a few pins to hold the pieces together and then run all 4 sides through the sewing machine.

Now you can flip it right side out, stick your pillow insert in through the flaps in the back…

and you will have yourself a beautiful new pillow!

This is a quick and easy project and you can make pillows for the whole house for super cheap!

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