Tutorial: How to Make a Square Pillow With Scraps
This pillow tutorial will teach you how to use leftover scraps of fabric to make unique pillow creations. I’ve included a pattern for a 7″ square pillow, but the same principles can be used to make scrap designs of any size and shape.
Supplies Needed:
Pattern includes:
(all of my patterns include 1/2″ seam allowance)
Step 1
Arrange Your Fabric Scraps
Collect fabric scraps from your recent sewing projects. Start playing around with the scraps and lay them out in a way that is aesthetically pleasing to you. The overall shape of the scrap layout doesn’t matter right now, but it should be big enough for your pillow pattern to to fit on top of.
Once you’re satisfied with the scrap layout, cut straight edges on all of your fabric pieces where they will be sewn together. When cutting, be sure to keep in mind that there will be some overlap of the pieces due to seam allowance.
Step 2
Sew Your fabric scraps together
One by one sew your scrap pieces together. I usually start with center pieces and then add on any outside pieces.
Step 3
Cut out the square from your scraps
Place your square on top of your scrap layout and cut it out. Now you have square that you can use for one side of your pillow.
Step 4
Repeat steps 1-3 for the second side of the pillow
Note: I’ve created a tutorial for the second side of this pillow that uses a different method for using leftover scraps in your pillow construction (check out the tutorial here)
Step 5
Sew both sides of the pillow together
With right sides together, sew your two pillow faces together. Be sure to leave a small gap on one side of the pillow so that you can turn it right side out.
Step 6
Turn Pillow to Right-side
Clip your corners (be careful not to cut the stitches) and turn your pillow to the right side through the small gap.
Step 7
Stuff the Pillow
You can use whatever you want to stuff your pillow. I like to use leftover fabric scraps that are too small to use for anything else as my pillow stuffing, but this does make the final pillow a little more lumpy than it otherwise would be. So, if you don’t like that, you can always use polyfill or another type of pillow stuffing material.
Step 8
Sew the gap
You can hand sew this closed if you want a seamless finish. I tend to get lazy at the end of my projects and will usually machine sew it closed with matching thread. It just depends how perfect you want your final pillow to look.
Finished!
