No, the headline is not too good to be true! I am really going to show you how you can take an old drab pillow and turn it fab in under five minutes with simply about a yards worth of fabric.

I took some thrifted pillows I found at Thrift Town that were in good shape and all under $5 each (some as low as $0.99!) for this project. Be sure to run them through the wash first prior to starting your project.

Thrift Town also has a pretty solid selection of fabric scraps in their bins department, and for pennies on the dollar you could easily pick up a yards worth of cute fabric. I happened upon a huge sale at my local fabric outlet store and used a few of my finds for my pillows, but be sure to check out the bins department for added savings.

The project is a bit difficult to show in still pictures, so please be sure to click on the Good Day Sacramento Thrifty Thursday link at the bottom so you can see first hand how to do it. I’m not kidding you when I say you can easily do this in under 5-minutes without having to whip a single stitch.

First step, in your yard’s (approx) worth of fabric, cut it into a square. It does not have to be perfect by any means, but having a square shape is necessary. Rule of thumb I found in this project is you should be able to flip the pillow over three times in order to have enough fabric to effectively re-cover it.

Second step, turn your fabric in a diamond pattern and place the pillow a little above the center.

Third step, bring the bottom triangle of the fabric up over the top of the pillow and tuck in the tip under the pillow.

Forth step, bring the top of part of the triangle toward the pillow to where the tip of it is resting just at the top of the pillow. Fold over one more time where the crease is now in the center of the pillow.

Tip: some people choose to iron the creases for cleaner lines. I did not do this as I am normally pretty crunched for time, and sincerely despise ironing!

Fifth step, start folding in the outer right and left edges like you would a present…this is difficult to explain, so please reference the video link. Essentially though you fold the two corners in, tucking in the edges, then take the remaining long piece and bring to the center of the pillow. The better the tuck job, the cleaner the fabric lines. Repeat on opposite side.

Sixth step, now that you have two long fabric pieces, bring them both to the center and tie a double knot. You will have a short amount of fabric left over, which you could simply leave as a cute bow, or tuck the edges into the folds for a cleaner look. Completely a personal preference call. Tuck in any other spots that may need a few good tugs, and viola, you’ve got yourself an updated throw pillow! One good karate chop to the top center and it’s couch ready!

Completely confused? Never fear, here’s the link as seen live on Good Day Sacramento’s Thrifty Thursday that will hopefully help: No-Sew Pillow Cases!

Happy thrifting!

Gina Doglione-Nielsen is featured every week on Good Day Sacramento’s Thrifty Thursdays, and owns GNJ Consulting which handles Public, Social, and Media Relations for Thrift Town Stores. Gina lives in Northern California with her amazing husband Josh, and is constantly on the go with three “very active” and “strong personality” bambinos; aka Team Nielsen, and loves every minute of it.