I was going back and forth about what to do with the birch and woodpecker fabric that I have. I only bought a yard of it because although I loved the pattern, I had no real idea as to what I was going to do with it. As I was standing in my living room and looking at the couch I realized that as much as I love my bow and fox throw pillows (post and tutorial here), the material and colors were too fall and winter... Looks like I found a purpose for the birch fabric! It is great for spring with its light and airy colors. It is also relatively smooth to the touch so much more practical as a pillow cover.
Here's a break down of the general steps I took to create the slipcover (It's got a zipper!)
Top Left: Gather the materials you need! For each pillow, cut 2 squares that is about an inch wider and longer than the pillows. For the ruffles, it will be folded long-ways in half so have the folded width to be about half an inch wider than the desired width for the ruffles. Length of the ruffle fabric was about 2.5 the perimeter of the pillows. It really depends on how much gathering (how tight the ruffles) you prefer. You could always go with a longer length and shorten it later.
Top Right: The fabric I have was not nearly long enough to have the ruffle fabric length I needed the first go around so I sewed strips of them together.
Bottom Left: Fold the ruffle fabric long-ways and baste through the fabric to form gatherings to the tightness you like.
Bottom Right: Pin the ruffles on the right side of the fabric facing towards the middle. Sew around the edges but make sure you are careful to not accidentally overlap the ruffles too much as you sew.
Top Left: This is what the ruffles will look like when you turn it right side out.
Top Right: Sew the zipper along one side over the ruffle. Right side of the zipper laying on the ruffle.
Bottom Left: Sew the other side of the zipper to the other square (Note, if you have a patterned fabric that has a distinct direction, make sure you are having it face the right way).
Bottom Right: Unzip the zipper
Pin the squares together with the ruffles in between them facing the center. Make sure the ruffles are as far away from where you are going to sew as possible, you want to make sure the ruffles still exist when you turn it right side out. Sew around the perimeter of the pillow carefully (remember, there are ruffles to consider). Turn it right side out and you've got a ruffled pillow that can zip up!
I went back and hand sewed parts of the zipper to make sure it was laying right and completely done.
It's convenient I had zippers that were pretty similar to the color of my fabric. The zipper on the left REALLY blends in beautifully, it's like an extra birch tree!
Hope everybody is having beautiful spring sunshine!
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