Beginner Sewing Tips-Pillow Cover

 Now I must start off this post with a disclaimer that I am no professional when it comes to sewing. I just like to fake it 'til I make it and when people like my projects I smile thankfully and get a little giddy inside that somehow I'm doing something right in the midst of it all. So if you are one of those people out there that you can practically whip up anything and sew in your sleep than this post you should probably just skip.

For my sake.

So you don't laugh at all the things that I need to have as "tips" and be reminded of. Because you may just find them silly and think I have no common sense. Or if you find the pleasure in getting a little laugh in here or there you may continue and laugh on your side of the computer where I can't hear you.

All jokes aside-

If you are a beginner like me and need some pretty straight forward almost obvious but helpful tips. Stick around, you may save yourself the time of unpicking and resewing a few times like I had too this weekend. It was quite the reality check that after 10 years of not sewing you forget a lot.

 

See the lovely pillow in front? Yup. I sewed that. Zipper and all. And if I CAN do it than you SURELY can. Believe me peeps. Zippers aren't that bad. Promise.  

Tutorial on how to actually sew a pillow cover with zipper is coming up later this week. So stick around for that :)

You can now find that tutorial here.

All of these tips are coming from me either having to look information up because I had not a clue before I started my sewing project..or because if I would have just known the information it could have saved me some time. SO, I hope they will help you newbies to the sewing world out.

Numero One:

When you are buying your fabric for your pillow you only need to add an inch more to your width and length of your pillow insert. For example: for a 20x20 insert you only need to buy 42 inches of fabric  (your width will probably be 54 inches for a normal roll of fabric). This is because when you cut your two squares out they will each be 20x20 exactly. I thought you would have to actually have more on each side because of seams and adding the zipper and all that jazz. But lo and behold you don't..having the fabric the exact size of the form will allow the pillow to look nice and plump.

Numero Two:

Always place your pins at right angles to the cutting or sewing line (If you can). This is so you can more easily pull your pins out when you are sewing and not continually get jabbed with the end of the pin poking your hand as you feed it through the machine. Not that this happened to me this past weekend, nope not at all...

Numero Three:

The iron is your friend. Really, it is. Get all the creases out so everything can be lined up more exact. Oh, and friends do this BEFORE you pin everything. Hot iron meeting the head of pins equals melted pins. Yes, you may all laugh now, even you beginners. I told you I am no professional....I am simply being a friend trying to save your projects. Right? Right...okay even I am now laughing at myself on this one. It was a ridiculous situation. Moving on.

Numero Four:

When you are buying your zipper it does not need to be the same size as the full width of your pillow. It can actually be about 2-4 inches smaller than the width. When you are sewing in your zipper you will have about 1.5 on each side of your zipper.  So just take that into consideration is all when purchasing the zip zip.

Numero Five:

Check your tension. Don't know how? No worries. Neither did I. Nor did I know what was wrong when after I sewed the side of my pillow (which front side up looked amazing if I do say so myself, but the back looked horrendous..the stitches were all loose and looked like a five year old had done it.) So, I jumped online and realized quickly it was my tension. You can adjust it with the dial located usually right above your needle numbered 0-9. When I found my dial I realized my tension was at ZERO! No wonder it looked bad, all I can say was I was very glad it was an easy fix and that my machine wasn't broken. Or that I wasn't just that bad of a seamstress. 


That's all for now friends. Join me later this week for the tutorial on how to actually sew a pillow cover with a zipper. It really isn't bad, promise.
Also, if you missed where you can find extremely cheap down pillow inserts check out this post from a few weeks ago.

The iron is your friend, stop and iron regularly as you sew. - See more at: http://www.thesewingdirectory.co.uk/sewing-tips-from-fabric-godmother/#sthash.FWgaroRc.dpuf