How To Make A Pillow Form
Sometimes when I’m making a pillow, I’ll realize that I don’t have a pillow form on hand that’s the right size or shape for the project I’m working on. So, today I’m going to share with you how to make a pillow form. It’s a really quick and easy project.
Be sure to check out our popular How To Make Pillows page for over 25 pillow ideas, tips & techniques.
How To Make A Pillow Form
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Materials:
Lining or white fabric
Poly-fil – I like Fairfield’s Poly-fil
Thread
Instructions:
1) Cut out lining. I like to make the pillow from out of one piece of lining. To figure the cuts – take the pillow form size and add 1″ to the width. For this example I’m making a 20″ x 20″ pillow form, so my width measurement is 21″. For the length measurement double the length of form and add 10″. So my length measurement is 20″ x 2 = 40″ + 10″ = 50″.
2. Mark a line on each end of the lining that is 5″ from edge. (See above photo). This will be used later to show where final seam needs to sewn.
3. Fold fabric in half, right sides together. Short ends together.
4. Serge or sew the two side seams. Normally I would use a matching thread, but I used black so that it would show up better in the photos.
5. Turn right side out, and stuff with poly-fil.
6. Pin open end closed, placing the pins in 1″ from the line.
7. Serge the open end closed, making sure that the seam is on the marked line. You can cut off 4″ or so of the end fabric to help the pillow go through the serger easier.
Do you make your own pillow forms? Or do you prefer ready made pillow forms?
More How To Make Pillow Posts:
How To Hand-Sew A Pillow Closed
How To Make A Pillow With Cording
I’m partying here!
Hi, Jann, I love your site! Good for you for sharing your expertise with so many of us with similar interests. I am still perusing and thinking of projects II would like to try. Years ago I sewed and enjoyed it. I’m sure I will again, but I was given a sewing machine upon retirement that puzzles me. I must familiarize myself with it before starting a project. I will start with decorative pillows. However, my machine is not a serger. You suggest serging in some of your how tos and videos. How do those of us who do not own a serger compensate? Thank you for your input.
Thanks Brenda! Good point about the serger. For a lot of my tutorials, I suggest using pinking shears to keep the fabrics from fraying. In this tutorial, you can use a straight stitch machine, and then use pinking sheers to finish the raw edges. I will try to fix that in this post.
You are a great teacher. Love all your tutorials.
Thank you Jann, for all your wonderful videos and tutorials. I have used your tutorial for the envelope pillows and they turn out great each time, I like that you use the same dimension as the pillow form and don’t add the extra inch since the pillow case looks to sloppy in the end. Using your tutorial my pillow case ends up so neat and tidy, and it stays that way over time.
Also I was going to make a pillow case for a pillow form and when I took the envelope pillow cover off the pillow form was torn, so now I am making your pillow form tutorial. Thanks for this as I wasn’t sure how to make it!
Joan
Joan, thank you for your kind words! I’m so glad my tutorials are helpful to you!