Painted Drop Cloth Pillow Covers

I’ve been on the hunt for new 20 x 20 pillow covers for the sofa for months. First I checked local then the real search began on the internet. Everything was either too plain, too dark, to busy, or more commonly… too expensive. I did find one set I liked but they were over $80. Just for pillow covers, not actual pillows! I can find a lot of things to spend $80 on but not pillow covers. Especially when I can make my own for much less.

I knew the material I was going to use because I have used it many times before…painters drop cloth material. ($39.99)

Here are some of the projects I have made using drop cloth material and paint. Everything from curtains, roman shades, pillow covers, table runners, monogramed placemats, and even a wreath.

Normally I would buy the 4 x 12 foot size but they were out of stock so 8 x 12 it was. Can make a lot of pillow covers with 12 feet of material.

I took it out of the package, cut it in half and threw one half in the washer, then hung it up to dry. I usually grab it off the line when it is almost dry but not quite because it definitely needs to be ironed before beginning the pillow covers.

With the material ironed, I cut out two pieces approximately 22 x 24. The finished covers will be 20 x 20, so that gives room for seams.

At this point I still wasn’t sure of the design, I knew stripes were always an option and a good one too, but I wanted to try something different.

First up was circles. I taped q-tips around a piece of plastic Jim cut off in the workshop.

May save that for another project but I could see it going all sorts of wrong trying to keep things lined up so decided to make ‘stamps’ using blocks of wood.

I raided Jims scrap wood (he doesn’t throw anything away!) and came up with a few blocks I could use. I decided to use the sticky felt pads you put on the bottom of your furniture legs. It can be bought in sheets, strips, large circles and small dots. And I had some on hand.

I drew a stem and leaves on the block, then cut out the same on the sticky felt.

Once I had the felt cut out, I peeled the backing off, stuck it on the wood block, and using a small brush I painted it using the living room wall color…green.

It took a long time to stamp because I had to paint it before every use, I was afraid to dip it in paint and ruin it.

Once I had all the leaves stamped on, I used another block of wood and 3 small felt dots painted white to add some interest to the pattern.

Here is the first one ready to be sewn.

For the second one I wanted to use the same colors but a different stamp. So I cut out more sticky felt and this is the second stamp.

I painted the outer parts green and the center dot black and got to work. Same as before, I had to paint before every stamp onto the fabric. I also stamped using the small block with 3 dots painted white.

Here are the two sheets of material painted and ready for sewing.

I took the material for one pillow cover and folded it with right sides together and ran down one side on the sewing machine.

I stuffed the cover with the insert and pinned and sewed the other side the same way. Then turned the material right side out and put the inserts in. At this point both pillows needed one last side sewn up.

That’s where the needle and thread came into play.

I tried to get Jim to sew one and I would sew the other…he didn’t fall for it.

It took sooooo long to sew up the first one, Jim commented that I would never make a living in a sweat shop. LOL.

Once I saw the 2 pillow covers finished, I decided that pattern #1 needed a touch of black. I used 3 q-tips taped around a pen to add 3 small dots.

Here are the 2 pillows together.

That table runner is another one I made a while back…see…stripes.

Well, seems I have some excess drop cloth material left over, you never know what else I will decide needs some drop cloth and paint. Maybe even stripes.

Thanks for reading…

Later.