In my craft/sewing room, I have a couch that is, well, very 80's. You know, peach and wood grain? It's not coming back anytime soon, so I found some heavy duty brown upholstery fabric on clearance and covered the entire thing. I went shopping for throw pillows and, once again, I was blown away by the cost of the things I so dearly wanted. So I went back to the fabric store and found more fabric that I felt would add some spice to my plain brown covered couch, as well as a bag of polyester filling. It was on sale, otherwise I would have waited, because these places put things on sale quite often.
I cut my fabric into two 20 inch squares, using a rotary cutter and the edge of a cutting mat to keep the lines straight and neat. I also add an inch or two when measuring for error.
Using fabric weights while cutting helps keep material in place!
After these steps are done, place the fabric pieces together, facing each other, and align them as best as possible.
Sew around three edges, about a half an inch or so in. On the fourth edge, sew about one-third of the way in on each side. It should look something like this.
Turn the fabric inside out, and you will have a hole on one edge. Stuff the pillow with the polyester filling until desired fullness.
For the last part, you can sew by hand or on the machine. I chose machine and it turned out great. Turn the edges of the open area under, and sew together to create as small of a "hem" as possible.
Now, fluff it out, test it out, and you have a designer pillow on a dime! I made a few more with the extra materials I had and now my sofa is full of personality!
Fabric: $1.50
Polyester Filling: $2.50
Total Cost: $4.00
Large throw pillows in home decor catalog: $35.00