Faux Chenille Christmas Pillowcase

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Faux chenille is a fabric manipulation technique I really love as its application is so universal. With Christmas around the corner, perhaps you wish to make a special gift for someone and this contribution may be the right inspiration for you.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to create a red and white decorative Christmasy faux-chenille pillow case. Please bear in mind that I am focusing on the faux chenille technique rather than a pillow sewing manual.

The size of the pillowcase I am working with here, is 60 cm by 70 cm (23 5/8 inch by 27 9/16 inch).

To make a faux chenille Christmas pillowcase, you will need:

  1. Red anti-pilling fleece (100% polyester)
  2. White anti-pilling fleece (100% polyester)
  3. Red polyester thread
  4. White polyester thread
  5. Scissors

1. Measure the size of your pillow

First of all, measure the size of the pillow for which you would like to sew this case. The size of the Christmas pillowcase I am working with here, is 60 cm by 70 cm (23 5/8 inch by 27 9/16 inch). If your pillow has different dimensions, you will either need to adjust the arrangement or size of the templates (a star, Christmas tree, heart) on the pillow.

2. Select closure type for the pillow

Decide whether you would like to use a zipper, concealed zipper, buttons or the envelope type of closure for the pillowcase. My choice is a concealed zipper.

2. Cut the fleece fabric

For the decorated front of the pillowcase, cut one red and one white piece of fleece, both corresponding with the size of your pillow. DO NOT FORGET to add seam allowances before cutting the fabrics. (Measure twice, cut once 🙂 I work with 1 cm (3/8 inch) seam allowance. Depending on the closure, cut one back piece of the pillow or two pieces for the envelope type of pillowcase.

Since I decided to sew a concealed zipper, I cut another red rectangle 60 cm by 70 cm (23 5/8 inch by 27 9/16 inch) large and ended up with two red rectangles and one white rectangle.

Red and white anti pilling 100% polyester fleece fabric.
Rectangles of white and red fleece fabric prepared for the faux-chenille pillowcase.

3. Baste one white and one red rectangle together

The two fabrics for the faux-chenille decoration should stick together well while sewing, so I recommend basting them. Place the red fleece on the top and the white one on the bottom (see the image below).

White and red fleece fabric basted together.
Faux chenille pillowcase front basted together.

4. Divide the width of the pillow to 6 parts

Divide the width of your pillow by six. Do not include the seam allowances into the equation, just the measured size of your pillow. That means (in this tutorial) 70/6 = 11, 6 cm (23 5/8 / 6 = about 4 1/2 inch).

Fleece fabric rectangle divided into six equal parts.
Pillowcase front divided into 6 equal parts.

5. Pre-draw diagonal lines and sew

This will be probably not necessary to explain to those who are proficient in quilting.

Pre-draw diagonal zig-zag lines according to the scheme below. In each step I drew three or four rows of zig-zag lines on the red fleece fabric with my quilting ruler and then I sew over them with a red polyester thread (see the images below).

Scheme of sewing diagonal lines on fleece fabric.
Scheme for sewing diagonal lines.

Place your quilting ruler like this (see the image below) and draw the first pair of diagonal lines.

Drawing a pair of diagonal lines with a quilting ruler.

Move your quilting ruler downwards by 1,4 cm (35/64 inch) and draw a new pair of diagonal lines. Draw three or four rows of diagonal lines along the whole pillow width (see the image below).

Drawn a pairs of diagonal lines with a quilting ruler.
Pre-drawn diagonal lines for sewing.

Afterwards sew through these lines with red polyester thread (see the image below).

Sewing over a drawn diagonal line with a sewing machine.
Sewing over pre-drawn lines.

When you sew the lines, draw a new set of zig-zag lines and continue sewing (see the images below).

Sewn and drawn diagonal lines on a faux chenille style christmas pillowcase.
Sewn and pre-drawn lines for the faux chenille pillowcase.

In the image below you can see one complete half of the Christmas pillowcase front.

Half of diagonal lines for the pillow front are complete.
Sewn diagonal lines for the faux chenille pillowcase.

After you have sewn all the diagonal lines (see the image below), you can move to the next step.

All of diagonal lines for the pillow front are complete.

6. Transfer the templates

Download and print out the templates (a star, heart and Christmas tree) on your home printer, or create your own.

Free printable star template.
Star template
Free printable and downloadable Christmas tree template.
Christmas tree
Free printable and downloadable heart template.
Heart template

Cut them out and by drawing around them transfer them to the red fleece fabric (see the image below). If you printed out the templates downloaded from this site, please cut them out along the solid lines.

In the image below you can see a scheme I used to transfer the templates. The red lines indicate the diagonal lines we have already sewn on the sewing machine. The blue lines indicate the arrangement and size of the individual templates.

Distribution of templates for a Christmas faux chenille style pillowcase.
Arrangement of templates on the pillow fron.
Transferring a star template to a faux chenille Christmas pillowcase.
Transferring star template to fleece fabric.
Transferring a star template to a faux chenille Christmas pillowcase.
Transferred star template to fleece fabric.

7. Sew over the templates

With white polyester thread, sew over the transferred lines of all the templates (see the scheme below).

Stitched star template on a faux chenille Christmas pillowcase.
Star sewn with white thread.

8. Clip and slash in between sewn lines

With the tip of your scissors, clip into the fabric within a template (see the image below).

Clipping in between sewn diagonal lines on a faux chenille Christmas pillowcase.
Scheme to clip in between diagonal lines.

Put the scissors into the clipped hole and slash the fabric (see the image below).

Slashing in between diagonal lines.
Slashing with scissors in between sewn diagonal lines within a sewn star.
Slashing in between in the diagonal lines with scissors.

Slash all diagonal lines within all templates (see the images below).

Slashed diagonal lines of a star.
Slashed templates on a DIY faux chenille Christmas pillowcase.
Slashed all lines of all templates.

9. Finish the Christmas pillowcase

Finish the pillow with the closure type you have chosen at the beginning. I hope you appreciate the result.

Finished faux chenille Christmas pillowcase on a sofa.
Finished faux chenille pillowcase on a sofa.

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