DIY Pillowcase for a Throw Pillow Made from a framed wall hanging

As Matt and I continue to settle into our home, I'm still trying to rearrange throw pillows, wall hangings, put together swatches for curtains, and it's finally almost a perfect home. Today, I'm going to show you how to make a throw pillow from a tapestry, or any fabric for that matter. It will close with a zipper, and a flap to hide the zipper, giving the pillow that extra polished look.

This wall hanging has been in all my homes since I was 18 years old. Bought for about 50 cents at a thrift store back home, it reminds me of Marushkas. If you look closely, you can see it's not a perfect rectangle. It's always been a bit off, and that made me love it even more for being irregular. Somewhere throughout it's 30+ year life, the wood warped and it's wider at the bottom than the top. And I was finally ready to take it apart for a throw pillow.

You will need: 

• Fabric/wall hanging
• Scissors
• A zipper as wide or wider than the pillow height. I used an invisible zipper
• A zipper foot attachment for your sewing machine
• Measuring tape
• Matching thread
• Straight pins
• A throw pillow

Start by removing your wall hanging from it's frame. I simply used a flat screwdriver to pry it from it's wood frame.

Next, measure your pillow (this step not pictured, but it's pretty self explanatory). Multiply the wide by two and cut out fabric. So, for example, my pillow is an 18" square, so I needed my block of fabric 38" by 20" to allow for a seam allowance. This means that you have extra room on the fabric to account for the seams. 

Then, cut a 2" strip as tall as the pillow. I cut 20" by 2". Press this strip lengthwise in half. Open up your zipper, and sew the zipper to the strip of fabric, sewing along the raw edge side. You want to have extra fabric on the opposite side of the zipper. This flat will hide the zipper when it's all together.

Now sew this flat to the pillow, with good sides together, directly over top of the previous seam you just sewed. Press open.

Close up your zipper, and fold your fabric, good sides together. Fold that flap open to the opposite side (so in this next step you don't sew it to the pillow. Match up the tops edge of the fabric, and pin the zipper to the raw edge of the fabric. 

Depending on your zipper you may not have to do this step, but I like to get as close to the zipper teeth on this side of the zipper, so I changed out my regular presser foot attachment to a zipper foot. Sew the zipper to the fabric.

Now that the zipper is attached, it's time to close up the top and bottom of the pillow. Placing the zipper in the exact center of the pillow, pin the top of the pillow closed and sew with a 1" seam allowance.

 Repeat this step on the other side, checking your measurements at equidistant at each side.

And viola! Look at that fancy backside of your pillow. No one will ever guess that you made it with that pretty flap hiding the zipper. As you can see by looking at my pillow, it wasn't as wide as it needed to be, so I cut the pillow down to the proper height, and used the excess fabric from the top of the fabric, and pieced it to the back to make it wide enough. I used all but a tiny 3" strip of fabric.

And now it's the perfect throw pillow! I can't wait to get new couches soon, and make more pillows. Matt isn't a fan of some of the prints that I choose, but I'm hoping he'll fall in love with them after I make them and add them to the couches. 

So whatcha think? Questions? Comments!