DIY Plaid Pillow Covers

A couch or bed full of pillows make everything feel more cozy, right? I love the look of piles of pillows but I just can't get myself to spring for holiday specific decor these days. With 11 plastic tubs of “Christmas” in the garage, I have no room to store throw pillows I'd use for 1 month out of the year. The solution is super easy: Make holiday covers for my current pillows! Not just holiday covers but pillow covers that will transform my tropical pillows into beautiful plaid pillows without anyone knowing the difference. I am also super excited to be on a week long celebration of all things plaid with some of your favorite bloggers and hosted by Mad In Crafts! This post contains affiliate links.

I love the plaid trend and most of the places I have looked for holiday pillows are selling them for $24 and up. That is literally holiday highway robbery! It is incredibly easy to make pillow covers for your old pillows or for new pillow forms using flannel plaid fabric, a sewing machine, and a zipper. Truly, this is just about all you need to make plaid pillow magic happen.

Supplies:

Plaid Fabric, cut to 1″ wider than the pillow, all the way around in Black & White, Red, and Blue
Zipper about 2″ shorter than the longest side of the pillow
Sewing machine with zipper foot (usually comes with the machine when you buy it) – I use this BabyLock machine and LOVE it!
Thread
Seam ripper
Pins
Pillow to cover
Clothes Iron with cotton setting
Scissors

I created a series of DIY plaid pillow covers for my living room to cover my existing living room pillows. I used a variety of flannel prints from my local craft stores in colors and patterns that my husband and I liked. Who says you can't mix plaids? I think the result is really fun! Here is a before and after:

It is kind of incredible how pillows can change the entire look of a room. Picking up dirty socks helps too. You can cover all of your pillows and then add one extra special holiday one that you purchase for that extra pop. I am all about spending less and having less stuff to store and shuffle around the house. The best thing about these pillow covers is that when you are done using them, they lie flat and can be folded to about the size of a dinner napkin.

I also made a plaid lampshade with coordinating fabric that coordinated with the pillows. Actually, it's the leftover fabric from the pillows! I'll share more on how I made that later this week as we continue with the Mad for Plaid series.

To complete the look, I made a fast fleece throw to snuggle with on cold winter nights that can be draped over the back of the sofa when we're not using it. Really, it's just going to be a cat hair collector but more on that on Friday when I share the fleece throw tutorial with a BONUS Tartan Kid's Scarf project to make your child look dapper this winter season. Matt thinks he looks all Burberry. Er, yeah, Burberry like Macklemore on a thrift shop budget!

Each of these DIY holiday plaid pillows takes about 10 minutes to make. If you have never sewn a zipper before, don't be scared. I show how to do that and sew these pillows from start to finish in this pillow tutorial video: