Burlap: Simple Home Made Elegance

 Hi, friends!  Happy 2014 to you.  I hope this post finds you all well and blessed!!

I have jumped on the burlap craze like many of you and I have to say: the pillows are cute.

Here is an easy tutorial to help you make your own in less than thirty minutes.

Materials:
pillow form
1 yd. burlap
scissors
straight pins
sewing machine and coordinating thread

Step 1: Double over your burlap so that you can't see the pillow form through the loose weave of the burlap.  It just looks better.  Then lay your pillow form on the left side of the burlap.  Make sure the pillow form is less than half the size of the length of your burlap.

Fold the burlap over and check the size to make sure it fits.

Step 2:  Pin two of the sides along the edge of the pillow form to make sure the burlap will be snug around the pillow.  This reduces the appearance of wrinkles and folding lines in the burlap. After pinning two sides, leave one side open so that you can slide out your pillow form before sewing.  The fourth side is the folded edge of the burlap.

Slide out your pillow and then pin the last open side right along where the edge of the pillow was.  See the picture below. It was tough to get the camera to pick up the straight pin against the burlap.

 Step 3:  One side of your pillow is the folded fabric, so you won't have to worry about sewing that edge.  Sew two of the three open sides completely closed.  I like to leave the opening for the pillow in the middle of the fourth side.  Sew about 2 1/2 inches in from each corner of the fourth side.  This will give you four crisp corners when finished.  (See below.  This is the bottom edge in the picture.)

Step 4:  Turn your pillow case right side out so that your stitches are all tucked away neatly inside.  Pin the opening in the middle of the fourth side closed so that you can hand-stitch your opening neatly closed.  Make sure to tuck in the unfinished edges to form a straight and even fourth edge.  Use a thread that is a close match in color to the burlap and it will help give a neater appearance.  I use just a straight stitch about 1/2 inch from the edge to finish the pillow across the complete opening.

Here's the finished look! Happy sewing!!