How I refreshed the ugliest pillows in the world!

After we moved into our new home last fall, we bought a beautiful sofa sleeper for the guest room. You know…for when the kids come and visit. 😉 It is so comfy and although the garnet red micro suede corduroy intrigued me, I felt my future plans were to accent it beach style, so I chose the only other available shade, a coffee brown sofa. If you’ve seen my Pinterest or read any of my nail blog, you know I’m all about the beach.

Before and after! You can choose to sew on one large button in center, or several up and down front fold. It’s just decoration!

I’m sure you’ve seen a myriad of tutorials and Pinterest posts of DIYs for re-covering pillows. So many methods, so little time! LOL Here is my method. Buying heavy cotton fabric by Waverly (at Walmart), $3.97/yd, my cost for recovering two pillows came to only $5.67. I found some gorgeous buttons to finish the look, $2 ea. Not cheap, but I figured since it was so inexpensive for fabric, I could splurge on just the right button accents! 😉 I’m not a seamstress and these photos are just to give you an idea how to recover a pillow with nearly 0 needlework! Let’s take a look.

Here is the ugly pillow, 1 of 2, to be recovered. Like I said, this is a brand new pillow with a zippered end. It’s filled with loose batting so I am leaving this ugly duckling in tact.

You know how exciting it is to pick out a brand new sofa, then you get it home and they all (ALL) come with the ugliest accent pillows? Yeah. You know what I’m talking about. Seriously! Why do furniture manufacturers go to all that trouble to create beautiful pieces, then choose hideous pillows to finish the look? Every. Single. Time! Here is how I fixed it. Sorry, just phone snaps here but you’ll get the idea.

Start with one ugly pillow you want to cover. If it contains loose fill or batting, I’d suggest you leave the original cover on. Unless it’s stinky. LOL This one unzips but it’s never been used, so I left it in place. Measure width and height to be covered. If you use a cloth seamstress measuring tape you can wrap the tape around it. Fabrics come in different widths on the bolt, ie., 45″, 60″, etc. I don’t do math, which is why I ended up with twice the amount of fabric that I needed for two pillows! Duh, but that’s ok. I have plans for the extra material.

Firmly wrap the piece of fabric around the pillow to determine placement and size. Fold over a generous amount 2-4″ of fabric in center. This will become the front (or back if you wish) of the pillow. Pin in place. I like the fold on the front where I plan to sew on a decorative button(s).

Using fusible bonding web of your choice (found in fabric department, cut piece to large front fold.

Place web piece between underside of fabric as close to the edge as possible before ironing. To fuse, per package instructions, cover area to be ironed with damp cloth (I use the thin cotton dish towels), set steam iron to Wool and press for 10 seconds per section. Don’t slide the iron. Allow to cool, check bond, repeat if necessary.

Continue bonding top or bottom edge, leaving one opening for pillow insertion.

Leave enough room to snugly fuse final bonding web on bottom end.

Determine placement of pillow before fusing all ends. Leave one end of the cover to whip stitch. I pinned the edges together and stitched. Only took me about 10 minutes. It would have taken less but the needles I started out with were too thin and broke two of them. Well, I know now!

Here is the piece ready for pillow insertion. Place final piece of bond tape between center folds once pillow is inserted and bond fold.

This is where I bonded the front large fold. Don’t worry, you can either iron the web with pillow in place, or leaving one end open (the one you will whip stitch) and iron in place.

Finis! I plan to recover all my ugly pillows. If your pillow covers are washable, remove, launder and iron if you plan to leave in place. Unless you use the pricier indoor/outdoor patio furniture fabric, I recommend spraying your finished product with fabric protector such as Scotchguard®.

Materials Needed/Suggested:
Ugly Pillow
Fabric
Measuring tape
Scissors
Pins
Stitch Witchery by Dritz® or any brand fusible bonding web/tape
Iron and ironing board or surface
Thread/needle

I’ve been working on several projects since our move. I’ve taken a few images on some of them, which I posted to my Pinterest page. So since I’ve been doing some DIY projects, I figured why not share them here on my WordPress home. Check here occasionally for my new projects, from distressing new(ish) furniture to older pieces in need of some love. Also, any other repurposing of objects that are just too boring. 😉

Thanks so much for reading and be sure to check out and “Pin” my other projects if they interest you! Comment and if you have suggestions to make my life easier on any projects, I heartily welcome them.

My Pinterest page!

My Nail Blog LacqueredLori

*All photos contained are owned and photographed by me and reposts and Pins may be shared. Photos may be borrowed upon my permission. Products used are purchased by me and I’m in no way compensated for my DIY projects.