DIY couch pillows = practically new couch!

i have seriously been searching MONTHS (literally) for the perfect fabric to make couch pillow covers, and a few weeks ago, i FINALLY found it! it was perfect, exactly what i wanted, and i fell in love as soon as i saw it. even better, it was half off the regular price - and that's a good thing... upholstery fabric is pricey!  my current couch pillows were in desperate need of updating. some of the corners were pulling apart... just bad.
here is a photo of the lovely fabric - it's a suzani print which is my absolute favorite.

the fabric with the blue birds was what i used to make throw pillows for my sister. she made a headboard and covered it with this fabric and had a ton of leftover..... so she sent the fabric to me and now she has two lovely pillows to match her beautiful headboard.
back to the couch pillows -
i have 7 couch pillows. yes, seven! we have a huge couch and a chair and a half, so i had a lot of work ahead of me. plus i was adding zippers to all the covers because i needed them to be washable. zippers are simple to add in, but can be confusing at the same time.
so here was my solution to that... once all three sides of my pillows were sewed up (right sides together, of course), it was time to sew in the zippers. my computer sat open right beside my sewing machine, and i followed step by step instructions so i wouldn't mess anything up! once you get the first one down pat, you've got it from there. the next six pillows were a breeze.
to save me loads of time, i cut fabric for all the pillows, sewed up three sides together on all the pillows, leaving only the zippers to be sewn. when you are working with a zipper you have to switch the foot on your sewing machine. then once the zipper is in place, you have to switch back to the regular sewing foot and sew the edges closed. just lots of switching! but all worth it!

after i got all the zippers sewed in, i took the old pillows and stuffed them into the new covers, zipped them up, and fell in love with my new 'old' couch all over again!

it really makes it look like a brand new couch! i'm so happy and all those many months of searching has finally paid off.

i believe oliver is enjoying the new pillows more than we are...