Sewing Tip - Easy Edges

On Saturday, while I was on my run to Joann to buy thread and quilt binding for the car quilt, I decided to look at fabric. I came across this one and it was LOVE. I bought the rest of the bolt (just under 3 yards) even though I didn't know what I was going to do with it. First thing - a throw pillow.

The back of this is a solid baby blue color. I did it as an envelope-style cover so that I can change it out as I see fit. I bought the nice pillow form and that bad boy wasn't cheap! Also, it's easier to store a bunch of covers than a bunch of pillows.

When you make an envelope pillow cover, you end up with two edges in the back that overlap. What I used to do was use a sewing gauge to carefully measure 1/4 inch from the edge before pressing it flat, very slowly, a few inches at a time. It took forever!

Then I came across this tip several months ago and I've never looked back.

Get yourself a sturdy piece of chipboard that has a little bit of length to it. You want it to be at least a foot long. Using a ruler, make a line 1/4 inch (or however wide you want it to be) from one edge.

Lay the chipboard on the wrong side of the fabric near the edge you are going to sew. Adjust it so that the edge of the fabric folds over the chipboard and just meets the line.

Press in place, using the chipboard to help guide your crease.

Pull out the chipboard and press again just to be sure that fold doesn't go anywhere. I folded it over one more time to a half inch (which is why my chipboard had two lines) before I sewed it so there wouldn't be any loose edges. This is SO much faster than what I was doing before!