Sewing Practical and Geeky Pillow Covers

Like many geeks, I love decorating my domicile with the trappings of my fandoms. Movie posters, figurines, and art prints provide color to blank apartment walls and easily “spark joy,” as they say, but I find a particular joy in things that are both geeky and useful. An Enterprise pizza cutter, Prancing Pony pint glasses . . . there is absolutely no reason you can’t be practical and have fun, too. With that in mind, I’ll be walking you through sewing simple pillow covers for couch pillows. Besides adding geeky flair to your living room, these are great in that they’re machine washable. Spill a bit of klah or Gargle Blaster? No problem—just strip the pillow and toss the cover in the laundry. This is also a beginner-friendly project.

Cat tested, cat approved.

What You’ll Need

• Geeky fabric
• Thread (pick a color that goes with your fabric)
• Needle
• Ruler
• Tape measure
• Pen
• Sew-on snap closures, Velcro, or buttons
• Sharp scissors
• Pillow to be covered
• Straight pins or quilting clips

How to Do It

1. Measure the dimensions of the pillow you want to cover using a tape measure. Make sure to measure the curve and not to squash the pillow when you do this; if you squish the stuffing, you won’t get an accurate measurement and the cover will end up too small. My example pillow is 17 inches square.

2. Determine the size of the fabric pieces you will need to cut. There will be three pieces: the front panel and two panels that overlap slightly for the back. Since I want a little leeway with my seam allowances, I will add two inches. For the front, this means I will need a 19×19-inch piece of fabric. For the back panels, the cover’s opening will be at the middle and I will need some additional length to hem the pieces at the opening while having them overlap, so I will need two 19×12-inch pieces.

3. Measure and cut the fabric. Remember: measure twice, cut once! You don’t want to find out your measurements were off after you’ve already cut a piece too small. You can mark out the measurements on the back side of the fabric using a ruler and pen. If your fabric is really creased and wrinkly, iron it first so your measurements will be accurate.

4. Hem the back pieces. For each of the 19×12-inch pieces, make a fold of about ½ inch along one of the long sides. Pin the fold down, and sew along it.

5. Arrange the three fabric pieces and pin together firmly. Start with the front panel laid out, with the nice side of the fabric face up. Lay down the back pieces nice side down on top of the front panel; put the hemmed edges at the middle, overlapping.

Left: Arrange the fabric pieces with the nice sides of the fabric together and the hemmed edges overlapping at the middle. Right: Pin or clip the pieces firmly together for sewing.

6. Pin the pieces firmly together around the whole perimeter; this will help you sew it without the fabric shifting around and ruining your seams.

7. Sew along each of the four sides. If you’re hand sewing, you can mark out where the seam should be using a pen and a ruler; this will keep your sewing straight.

8. To start off hand sewing, don’t knot the thread. This either pulls through the fabric too easily, or it creates a lump under the fabric. Instead, make a “mouse” by sewing two or three stitches right on top of each other. This is enough to fix the thread in place. A doubled thread will make seams stronger, but a single thread is also okay.

Left: Marking a line for hand-sewing seams. Top right: Sewing a mouse. Bottom right: Use small running stitches to sew the seam.

9. Sew a running stitch along the line you marked, making sure to keep your stitches small and even. Large stitches result in gaping holes in your seams. Try to shoot for stitches that are just a couple millimeters long. Make sure the stitches lie flat, and don’t bunch up the fabric. Use another “mouse” to anchor the thread at the end of the seam.

10. Once all four sides are sewn together, turn the cover inside out (or rather, right side out). You can test fit it to your pillow at this point. If it’s too small or too big, you can rip out the seams and try again.

11. The last thing to do is add a closure, if desired. I prefer sew-on snap closures. You can also use Velcro or buttons. Just figure out where you want them, mark the placement, and sew them in place.

Stores like Joann Fabrics carry a fairly large selection of licensed character fabrics. I found the adorable chibi Harry Potter fabric I used in this tutorial there, on a shelf along with other geeky patterns including Doctor Who, Marvel, The Legend of Zelda, and Minecraft, to name a few. Have fun with it!