Dream Weaver Pillow Cover
Designed and woven by Jodi Ybarra
This project encourages you to play with color. Select six colors, or let Cotton Clouds help with their Aurora Earth Bundles that take the guesswork out of combining warp colors. This is such a fun project with so many color possibilities!
Project Specs
Finished size: one envelope pillow cover 18" x 28"
Weave Structure: plain weave
Total warp ends: 460 lengths (230 doubled ends)
Note: This 3 yard warp can be used for one standard size bed pillow or two smaller pillows. Weave the entire length of your warp, which will allow for the pillow sizes you decide to make.
Warp Length: 3 yds (108")
Width in reed: 23"
EPI:10 doubled ends (2 ends per slot and hole)
PPI: 10 doubled picks (wind the shuttle with doubled weft yarn)
What You'll Need
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Warp yarn: Cotton Clouds Aurora Earth 8/2 cotton (100% cotton, 3360 yds/lb): 1380 yds total, 230 yards per color for 6 colors. Sample used Cinnamon, Rust, Ocean, Plum Green, Gold, and Yellow but the project can use any 6 colors of your choice.
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Weft yarn: Cotton Clouds Aurora Earth 8/2 cotton (100% cotton, 3360 yds/lb): 1100 yds (2 cones of 550 yds) in Natural or any color of your choice.
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rigid heddle loom with at least a 23" weaving width—I used a 25" Flip loom
- 10 dent heddle
- 2 shuttles
- sewing machine or sewing needle and thread
Materials
Equipment
Directions
Warping
Set up your loom to direct warp a length of 3 yards. Warp your reed with 4 (doubled) threads in each slot for a 23" weaving width. You can choose your own color sequence with your colors: There is no wrong warping sequence in this project! Warp in irregular stripes or design a stripe sequence that is appealing to your eye. You may choose wide stripes, thinner stripes, or random colors throughout. Random warps look wonderful in plain weave and the results are always a surprise. I warped 2 ends (doubled), repeating Cinnamon, Rust, Ocean, Plum Green, Gold, Yellow all the way across.
- Thread the rigid heddle with 2 ends per hole.
- Wind one shuttle with doubled weft yarn and another with a single strand of weft yarn for the hems. You'll need about 20 yards of weft per hem.
Note: You can warp your reed with 4 threads in each slot, and then move 2 to each hole, as described above. Or you can thread 2 threads through each slot and each hole as you go around the warping peg and back apron bar. Simply bring a looped end of warp from the back apron rod through the slot or hole and place it around the peg. Wind on as usual and tie onto the front beam without any further threading. This will save you time—you don't have to go back and move warp threads to the holes. Any time you weave with a sett that is twice the reed's dent (here, 20 EPI on a 10 dent reed) or with doubled warp yarn, you can use this technique.
Weaving
Weave a header with scrap yarn to spread the warp.
- With a single strand of weft, weave 1-1/2" for the first hem.
- Weave in plain weave for 86" or the entire length of your warp.
- With a single strand of weft, weave 1-1/2" for the second hem.
- Weave a few rows with scrap yarn before cutting your fabric from the loom.
- If you're making two pillow covers, weave two additional hems in the middle, separated by a few rows woven with scrap yarn.
Finishing the Fabric
Remove the fabric from the loom and sew across each end with sewing thread to prevent your weft threads from unravelling. Trim off scrap yarns.
- Fold each hem under twice and press with a hot iron to get a nice flat edge. Sew a straight stitch across with a matching sewing thread to secure each hem.
- Wash the hemmed fabric by machine in cold water and dry in the dryer—it should shrink before you sew the final pillow cover(s).
Assembly
You can find many YouTube videos for sewing envelope pillows, if you like visual instructions.
- Measure the pillow you will be using inside your pillow cover. If you are making a cover for a standard 20" x 26" pillow, your finished pillow cover should be at least 28" long to allow for the thickness of your pillow.
- Lay the fabric right side up on a work surface. Fold over each short end at least 16" so that they overlap each other. Pin along the long sides of the fabric. Note that there will be three layers where the opening edges overlap.
- Sew along the two long sides with a 3/8" seam and press the seams. Turn fabric right side out and stuff with pillow. Cuddle up with your soft cotton pillow and dream the night away.
- You can also sew your pillows into smaller square covers, stuffed with cotton or a pillow form in your choice of sizes. You can also embellish your pillows with large buttons or pom-poms. Happy weaving and dreaming!
