Christmas Cushions Everywhere

Are you starting to get excited about the best time of year approaching, and can’t wait to get started? How about making some cute DIY Christmas pillows? Making your DIY festive pillows is a fun, easy, and affordable way to coordinate your Christmas decor. Today, I will show you several ideas using the same red plaid fabric, and a full step-by-step tutorial on how you can create several cute Christmas pillows for your home decor in different styles and sizes. All the pillow covers on this post are envelope pillow covers I sewed. These are the easiest covers to sew because you don’t need a pattern or a zipper.

If you don’t want to sew, you can purchase a solid color pillow cover, I especially like a white pillow cover, and then follow the instructions for applique.

Pillows are extra valuable to me as Christmas decor. Pillows add comfort, a cozy Christmas vibe, and a pop of color for our holiday decor theme, and they do it all without adding additional clutter.

Here are two coordinating pillow covers I made for our living room. The post will show you several more coordinating cushion covers I made for the bedrooms as well.

How to Sew an Envelope Pillow Cover

Sewing an envelope DIY pillow cover is a very popular craft because it is quick, easy, and affordable, you don’t need a pattern, and all the sewing seams are straight.

DIY Christmas Pillow Supplies

If you need a tutorial on sewing envelope pillow covers, this full tutorial shows you everything you need to know to make a simple envelope pillow cover and includes a video tutorial. Here are the steps I took to make these Christmas cushion covers.

Sewing the Envelope Cushion – Sewing Option

Step 1 – Wash, dry, and iron your fabric.

Step 2 – Decide what you want your pillow dimensions to be. Cut three pieces of fabric to a size one inch larger than the pillow insert to make room for seam allowances. For examples

Cut ONE large square fabric piece whatever size you want your pillow to be plus 1/2″ on all sides for seam allowance.

20-inch pillow – cut your fabric 21″ square.
18-inch pillow – cut your fabric 19″ square.

Cut TWO rectangular fabric pieces the same width as your square fabricpiece, and 3/4 times as high. For example:

20-inch size pillow- cut two pieces 21″ wide and 16″ high
18-inch size pillow- cut two pieces 19″ wide and 14″ high

Step 3 – Hem the two rectangular fabric pieces.

The opening of the envelope needs to be hemmed on each piece of fabric before pinning your pillow cover together. When sewn the two folded hems will meet in the middle.

With the good side of the fabric facing down, fold each rectangular back piece 1/2 inch. Iron to make a crease. Refold the same edge over but this time make it one inch. Pin in place.

Repeat for the second back piece.

Sew along the edge of each hem using a straight stitch. Remove the pins.

Step 4 – Seal the raw edges.

Sew a zig-zag stitch along each raw edge to prevent the fabric from unraveling.

How to Applique a Pillow Cover – Both Sew and No Sew Options

You can refresh any plain pillow by adding an applique.

Step 5 – Create an Applique Pattern

Let’s find an applique pattern.  These cushions are made without a Cricut.  I have provided a few printable letter-size patterns for you to choose from.  You will find all the separate files in a folder.  Just click download and print the paper patterns in black and white. 

If you have a Cricut, sign into Cricut design space and create a cut file. 

If the free patterns aren’t to your liking, grab a coffee and check out some great free resources. Pixabay, Canva, and Picmonkey. These aren’t affiliate links, I have paid accounts and regularly use both Canva and Picmonkey. Picmonkey and Canva offer free online resources you can use to choose something personalized you love.    It’s so much fun to see all the different designs and fonts you can use to create your appliques.  

Step 6 – Choose Interfacing

Once the pattern is done the next step is to decide if you want to sew around the edges of your applique or not.

If you choose to sew around the applique regular Heat n Bond interfacing will work. If you don’t want to sew around the edges you need to use the Heat n Bond Ultra hold, as it’s much stronger.

Step 7 – Make the Applique

If you have a Cricut it will do the work for you. To do it by hand, cut a piece of interfacing and fabric an inch or two larger than your applique pattern.

Cut around both the material and the interfacing, an inch or two larger than your applique pattern.

Protect both your iron and ironing board and cover with parchment paper. Place the wrong side of the material onto the interfacing and iron well. (following interface package instructions)

Once the interfacing is attached to the material, pin on the pattern and cut out, the simple patterns like the star and tree are cut out easily. With a little patience and small scissors, you can do some pretty intricate lettering.

Step 8 – Add the Applique

Find the center of your pillow cover, and fold the front panel in half and half again to find the center. Mark with chalk or a pin. Use a measuring tape to find the center of your applique.

Remove the paper backing from the interfacing.

Using the center marks, place the applique interfacing side down, onto the front of the pillow cover and iron.

If you chose not to sew the applique around the edges you’re done. If sewing, sew a zig-zag stitch around all the outer edges of your applique in a coordinating thread.

If you used a purchased plain cover, your finished. For those sewing the DIY envelope cushion lets continue.

Step 9 – Pin and Sew

Lay the pillow front applique side up. Place the two hemmed panels, hemmed side up.

Line up all the edges, make sure that the hemmed sides overlap. Pin everything in place.

Sew all the sides with a straight stitch.

Press all the seams open and flat as this gives your edges a nice crisp edge.

Turn the pillow pillow right side out, I like to use the tip of my scissors to get the point of the cushion out. Place on your pillow.

Cushions with Pom Poms

These red pillows are all envelope cushion covers in different sizes and materials. I added pom poms to the larger cushion covers to match the tartan afghan I made for another post. Here is the post with how to make DIY cushion covers for winter with step by step pom pom tutorial.

DIY Child Safety Pillows

You can make a little safety pillow for your younger overnight guests in just a few minutes.  They are shown covered in the plain red felt.

Buy or sew small rectangular pillow inserts.   Cover with a small envelope cover just cut the fabric one inch wider than your pillow insert.

When young guests come over to sleep,  place these pillows between the fitted sheet and the mattress cover (or mattress), along the edge of the bed where they are going to sleep.

Its an easy way to add a little edging to your bed to prevent the little ones from falling out of bed.  During the day, I place them at the top of the bed as shown above.

I am really excited about the red tartan Christmas decor, once you make your first Christmas cushion DIY the remaining ones are so simple to whip up and customize anyway you want. In Canada finding exactly what you want affordably is a struggle, so this alternative saved me hours and hours of trugging around in the cold to find exactly what I needed.

Happy Crafting,

Leanna