Sandpaper & Sparkles: DIY Pillow Cover

How To DIY Design Pillow Cover

One of my inspirations to create my own blog was Virginia from livelovediy.com. That chick is fabulous and so creative. I stalk her blog on a daily basis waiting for her next post. I have mimicked many of her DIY projects, so, I will reference her on my blog where she deserves the props.

There are a ton of DIY pillow case tutorials to choose from, however, Virginia's pillow cover has a twist 'DIY stencil sharpie pillow', see the original post here. I looooved this idea and used it on my pillows that no longer matched my new decor. The old Mary-Ellen would take those un-matching pillows and throw them to the back of my storage area and forget about them while I shopped for new ones. BUT, I have changed my ways and found peace in renewing the old! So, this is what I did:

First, I picked out the fabric I wanted for my pillows. I asked the nice ladies at the fabric store what would work best for pillow covers since I know little to nothing about fabric. I picked out a pure white to match my bedspread.

Virginia used a no sew glue and glued her fabric together. I actually searched for it at Michael's Craft Store and the local fabric stores but had no luck. I have a hunch that perhaps it's not sold in Canada. Anyone heard of Unique Stitch sold in Nova Scotia? If so leave me a comment and let me know! I would love to get my paws on some. I too share a hatred for sewing. My mother is an exceptional seamstress and has taught me the basics but I'd rather squeeze glue out of a bottle if it works.

I ended up just sewing the fabric together. I used Virginian's pattern and it worked like a charm. Here is the pattern.

I put the covers on the pillows to make sure they fit correctly and removed them. Then I cut my stencil. I used just a plain piece of computer paper but you can use something that is stiffer such as bristol board. It took me a couple of times before I got the stencil I wanted for my design. Here is the pattern used for the stencil.

It's important to not jump the gun and make a plan with the stencil before you put a sharpie to the fabric. Once you have a plan trace your stencil onto the fabric.

After I traced the stencil, I then used a ruler to help guide me with the thickness of my line. I wanted my line a bit thicker, so, I made another line on the interior of the original line. I used a measurement of approximately 1cm as my guide line.

the finished product! I just love it so much!! The only downside I've had to this was I split a bit of water on one of the pillows and the sharpie ran and essentially ruined the pillow cover. I bought fabric paint so I'm excited to use that on my next pillow cover or whatever else!