Three-Step Envelope Pillow Tutorial

This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase something through the link, I may receive a small commission at no extra charge to you.

If you love simple sewing projects, you’ll love how easy it is to make this envelope pillow!  All you need is two pieces of fabric and an hour out of your afternoon.

I don’t go in to Joann’s often, but when I do I walk away with a lot of fabric and just a handful of ideas of what to do with it.  See, my problem is that I can’t walk away from pretty fabric.  It’s near impossible for me to do.  So when I went in to Joann’s on this particular day, it was pretty unusual for me to know what I was looking for.  And what I wanted, was a floral fabric that would look gorgeous as a throw pillow.

When I first decided to make an envelope pillow I was only going to use one piece of fabric for the whole thing.  But guess who wasn’t paying attention and cut the fabric wrong?  Yea….I’m terrible at rushing and not paying attention!  So, because I messed up I had to jump to plan b and make a pillow with one fabric on the front and one on the back.  I just had to find a fabric that would go well with the floral.

I have a really hard time picking out fabrics that go well together.  Coordinating colors and fabrics are definitely not my strong suit, which is probably why it takes me forever to pick things out for my home.  This is also the reason all the clothes I own aren’t very adventurous.  I’m all about being simple!  I may have stalked the Joann’s fabric to see which fabric it suggested to coordinate with the floral one….thank goodness for that.  Otherwise I may have never made the pillow.

That’s something else you probably need to know about me.  If I don’t feel confident with color or pattern combinations after I’ve bought something, it’ll just sit in my closet for forever.  I really need to get better about that!

I’m honestly not very into complicated sewing projects so the simplicity of this envelope pillow was awesome!

Here is how I made the envelope pillow:

My pillow was 20 x 20 inches wide, so I cut my main piece of fabric (the floral one) 21 x 21 inches.

The two back pieces were 21 x 15 inches.

The first thing I did was sew one of the long edges (21 inches) of both of my back pieces so that they are finished.  Once that’s done, lay those two pieces face down on the floral fabric.  Make sure all right sides are touching.

Next, sew all the way around the four sides of your pillow.  I always like cutting the corners of my projects…but that step is totally optional!

Turn your fabric inside out, stuff it with the pillow, and then display it in your home!  If you want to take it one step further you can top stitch around the outside of your pillow (like I did in the above picture!), but you don’t have to!  It just gives the project a more finished look.

My favorite thing about this envelope pillow is that it can easily be switched out to go with each season, new trends, or your latest fabric obsessions.  Because you know, you can never walk in to Joann’s and come out with nothing!

Now, if I could just figure out where to put this pillow in my house we’d be good to go!  Good grief, I’m really indecisive.  That’s so embarrassing.  It was supposed to go in our bedroom but I ruined our comforter so it doesn’t match the one we have in there now (you can read about that disaster here).  Oh well, I guess it’ll find a home eventually!

Are you a fan of the envelope pillow?  Do you have any around your house?