DIY Zippered Pillow

Last week my sister was talking about how she needed to make pillows for her couch.  I told her she needed to add zippers so she could easily wash them.  She then suggested that I make them for her.  SOOOOOO, instead, I am going to show her how to make pillows with a zipper.  You know, like the saying, give a man a fish. . .

 For these pillows you need interior fabric (any lightweight cotton), exterior fabric, a zipper, packaged piping and fiberfill.

I wanted my pillows to be large enough to fit on my Adirondack chairs and not look too small.  I cut all my material 21.5" X 21.5" for a finished pillow of 21" X 21".

Take your two interior pieces of fabric and with right sides together sew *almost* all the way around leaving an opening on one side.

The picture on the left shows the opening you will use to turn the fabric right side out. Make sure to clip the corners so you have pointy edges.  Turn your interior fabric right side out and stuff with the fiberfill.

Pin and sew the opening shut.  Admire your work. Pillow form done.

Take your piping and about an inch  from one end remove the stitches.  Fold back the fabric and cut the interior cord.

Put one pin in to hold the piping and then sew the piping to the right side of your fabric with the edges aligned.  Make sure you don't sew down the part that you removed the stitches from.  You will need to fold that down later to create a finished edge.

 

Using a zipper foot, sew, sew, sew.

Once you reach a corner align the edge of the piping to the edge of the fabric you are going towards. The piping is cut on a bias to allow for easy curves.

Stop sewing about an inch or two from the meeting point.  Remember earlier when you cut out about an inch of the cording? Now butt the edges of the cord together to determine where to cut and then cut off the excess.  Don't cut the fabric of the part where you removed the stitches!

Fold back the fabric, place the other part of the piping in the opening and sew all the way across.

What you are left with is a beautiful, hardly noticeable seam.


Now, it is time for the zipper. Yay!

 Sew the ends together and then measure how long/short you need your zipper to be and sew along the bottom cutting off the excess.  In retrospect, I should have used white thread, but I was too lazy and didn't want to change it out.  (No, no, what I mean is that I used dark thread so you could see it better ;).

With the right side of the zipper matching the right side of your fabric, align the edges and pin.

Using a zipper foot sew along the zipper.

 This is what it should look like when you are finished inserting the zip.

Align your second piece of exterior fabric to the piece with the zipper and piping.  Make sure the zipper is open so that the sewing will go easier.  Here, you can pin all the way around, but I never do.

Start sewing where the zipper is.  The two circles are where you are going to have to sew through all the layers but once you get to the opening of the zipper only sew on the zipper and bottom layer.

Once you are done sewing all the way around, turn it right side out, iron and stuff in your pillow form.

Final step:  admire your awesomeness.