How to Make a Quilted Pillow Case

Scrappy Half Square Triangle Quilted Pillow Case Tutorial

This pattern makes one 12” pillow case.

If you’ve been following me recently, you know I recently wrote a quilt pattern called Diamond Twist, and I made a baby version of it for a friend in vivid aquas and magentas.

You also know that I’ve committed to emptying out my scrap box this year.

This quilted pillow case is 100% made from the scraps of the Diamond Twist quilt. If you make the quilt (and I really think you should!), you’ll have everything you need for the front of this pillow case.

But, don’t worry, even if you haven’t made Diamond Twist (yet!!!), I’ve also got directions for how to make this quilted pillow case from half of a yard of fabric as well.

Each block of Diamond Twist leaves behind 8 half square triangles. Even before I planned to make this pillow case, I sewed all 8 pairs (times 30 blocks!) together, as I knew I wasn’t going to waste any scraps this year. I set them aside, still chain-pieced together, without ironing them, knowing that some project would come along eventually.

When I was ready to work with them, I ironed all 240 towards the colored fabric and started trimming.

I don’t use it often, but this little 6” square ruler is perfect for this sort of small work. My 6” by 24” ruler is great for almost everything, but when it comes to using the 45* angle on little pieces, I appreciate having this smaller square ruler, it’s easier to manipulate and turn as needed, without the clunky end crashing in to everything (and knocking the coffee cup off the table. I once shattered my favorite coffee cup AND got coffee stains on the lightest fabric of my Christmas On Point quilt. Lesson learned.) or jabbing me in the ribs.

I am an affiliate and may earn a small commission if you shop through any links on this website.

Quilted Pillow Case Tutorial Supplies Needed:

12” pillow

14” square of muslin or other light-weight and light-colored fabric

One fat quarter (for the back of the pillow case)

144 half square triangles that measure 1½” unfinished

There are two ways to get these.

The left-overs from the 8” Diamond Twist block are perfect.

Cut ½ of a yard of fabric (total fabric yardage, but there are 3 different colors needed) into 2” squares. You will need 72 white squares, 36 aqua and 36 magenta.
- Follow these directions to make perfect half square triangles.

Look at that pile of trimmed squares getting bigger and bigger.

So, now that you’ve got your 144 half square triangles made and trimmed, you are ready to make the pillow case!

How to Make a Quilted Pillow Case Top

Lay out all 144 squares, in 12 rows of 12 squares. Note the direction of each triangle in the photo.

I find it easiest to start with the 4 magenta triangles that form the diamond (a little left and high of center), and then spread out from there, making concentric diamonds that alternate between magenta and aqua, with a white diamond in between each color.

Starting in the upper right, and working along the top row towards the left, sew all squares into pairs. Sew, press, repeat.

This is what the whole top row looks like in pairs.

Repeat with row two, this time starting on the left and working towards the right.

Alternating directions helps the whole thing to stay nice and straight. It will also help the seams to nestle together in the next step which will help the quilt to lay flat. When working with this many little pieces (144 squares made of two triangles each is 288 itty bitty pieces) you want to make sure you are doing everything in your power to help the blocks to go together smoothly and straight.

Repeat, alternating directions with each row, until all 12 rows are sewn into pairs.

The next step is to sew the pairs from row one to the pairs from row two, creating squares. Again, alternating direction is super helpful!

Now, don’t be dumb like me. Looking at this next photo, it all looks right. But it’s not. After sewing the pairs from rows one and two, I pinned the pairs for rows three and four, so they are not in this photo. And I then laid the top row of squares out incorrectly. It’s not obvious in this photo, but the point that meets (just left of center) should be magenta not aqua and the corner triangles should be white. I got super frustrated as I sewed, pressed and then tried to place each subsequent square back in the right spot as I could not get the pieces to match! Sew just a few squares at a time, and refer back to the photo of all 144 squares before any of them were sewn together to keep all of the pieces in the right spot!

Fortunately, I had sewn all of the squares together correctly, and had realized my error before I started sewing the pieces that were in the wrong place, so I didn’t have to cut any seams apart!

Continue making the pairs into squares, pinning all the seams before sewing, and taking care to place the resulting squares back in the correct place.

Again, alternate directions in each row to pin squares into pairs.

Now is a good time to take a break because A. The stress level is still high from the error in the previous step and B. The light is coming through the skylight at exactly the wrong angle for taking photos.

Calm again? The light is good? You spent the break outside with iced coffee and good book? Excellent! Sew, press and return to place all of the pieces so that you now have 18 units total.

Sew all three units in row one to the unit below in row two. Repeat with rows three and four, and with rows five and six, always taking care to alternate directions and to pin all seams. There are now nine squares, each made up of 16 half square triangles. Now, apparently that break I took outside was more relaxing than it should have been! I came back in, got into the rhythm of sewing and forgot to stop after each step to take a photo! This photo does not show nine squares. It shows seven squares and two that have already been sewn together. Go ahead and use your imagination for what this should have looked like before squares 8 and 9 were sewn together.

Sew these nine squares together, to a create the top of the pillow case. Your pillow case SHOULD measure 12½” but I recommend double checking that number. With so many tiny pieces, a seam allowance that is not quite exactly ¼” can greatly affect the finished size.

Look how pretty the back is, with all those seams nestled nicely together!

Baste your pillow case top to the square of muslin and quilt as desired. This step will mean that your pillow case will be washable, without all of the seams opening up. You can check out this tutorial for how to mend seams that have opened, but it’s a good idea to quilt this with lines close together to prevent wear.

Quilt as desired. I followed the lines of the diamond, ¼” inside and outside the seams. Trim the excess muslin away from the edges of the quilted pillow case top. This photo shows the muslin side of the quilted top.

How to make a pillow case

To make the back of the pillow case, cut (these directions assume your top did end up at exactly 12½” square- adjust your measurements for the back as needed if yours is slightly smaller or larger) a strip 12½” by 20” from the fat quarter. Sub cut into two pieces that are each 10” by 12½”.

Hem a 12½” side of both pieces. I do this by pressing a ¼” hem, and then folding it over and pressing a second ¼” hem, and then top stitching.

Lay the two pieces down so that the right side is up, and overlap the hemmed sides so that the entire thing is 12½” square. Pin the pieces together once or twice along the hemmed overlap.

Place the quilted top face down (so that right sides of the front and back are together), match up all of the edges, and pin in place.

Stitch around all four sides.

Turn right side out, and poke the corners out as best as possible. Stuff the pillow form into the pillow case, and voila! A perfectly quilted Half Square Triangle throw pillow!