I have a sofa with pillows, but I want to put different designs on the pillows. Maybe new materials. How do I go about making new pillow covers for the pillows on the sofa. Its about 8 big pillows and two small ones.
This is actually not that hard. I've recovered a lot of sofa cushions. Most pillow covers on sofas zip off. Unzip each cover and take out the stuffing. Turn the pillow cover inside out. Then take a tape measure or ruler and measure the size of each of the pieces of fabric that are sewed together. Draw a sketch of each piece, with the measurements. Add about 1/2 to 1 around each edge for the sewing seam. Once you've got all of the pieces written down, figure out how much fabric you will need by making a diagram of all of the pieces. Most upholstery fabric is about 54 to 60 wide. It can be very expensive but there are a lot of discount places that sell remnants. Be sure to buy zippers in the right length or a little bit longer than the old zippers. After you buy the fabric, you can either layout the pieces to cut from the measurements on the sketches or just lay an inside out old cover on the fabric, pin it down and cut around it. Sew the zippers into the side pieces just like the original covers. Sew the tops and bottoms of the pillows to the narrow side strip piece. Be careful to make the corners line up. If you go to a sewing and fabric store, most of the major dress pattern companies also sell patterns with instructions for making slipcovers, which can be helpful. The salespeople who work at such stores can usually help you out a lot with measuring and with instructions, too. By the way, if you get washable fabric and want to be able to launder the covers, be sure to machine wash and dry the fabric BEFORE you cut it and make the covers.
