craftgrrl | Sewing pillow covers (Reply)

I'd been pondering this problem for a week or so, and it finally dawned on me to post about it here. I'm a novice sewer. In my life I've done maybe 5 sewing projects (and 2 of those were in home ec. class). But I've been thinking about sewing some covers for my mismatched living room pillows so they all match. And I figure all the straight lines will make them pretty easy.

My question is about how much fabric to add for the edges. I know the measurements of the finished pillows, but need to know how much fabric to buy and cut out for each one.

Also, I'm planning on using velcro on them, but am debating whether to make one whole finished edge a velcro closure, or to make them kind of like pillow shams (which is what I'm leaning towards, but it seems slightly more involved), with an overlap in the back, and put velcro on that. That would involve some extra fabric, too, I think, and I am not sure how much I should add for that.

The only web surfing I've done for this so far is to look at DIYnet, and I only found no-sew pillow covers on that site. Can you guys help me plan this out? Thanks!!