Invisible Zipper Pillow Tutorial

Now that I’m working on my book, I won’t be working at the Stitch and Sew Studio as much during open sew hours; however, I will still be teaching classes there on the weekends. 🙂 During my time there (almost 7 months!), I’ve met some really great people and made some wonderful friends.  They’ve learned sewing tips and tricks from me, but I think I’ve learned the most from them! Here’s a super easy and fun invisible zipper tutorial that I learned from Teresa and Meg. Thanks gals! 😉

Keep in mind that there are many different ways to do this, and this method is a very simplified and practical way to do it. If it works, then I’m all for bending the rules! It’s funner that way anyway. Enjoy!

Materials:

• Fabric for the front and back of your pillow. the fabric will need to be 1 inch bigger than the pillow size. Example: To make a cover for a 21 x 21 inch pillow, you will need  two 22 x 22 inch squares cut from your fabric. 
• Zipper – should be at least 2 inches shorter than the finished pillow length. Example: If you’re sewing a cover for a 21 x 21 inch pillow, get a 19 inch long zipper.
• Optional: Lightweight interfacing such as Fusi-Bond Lite. Iron this stuff on any quilting cotton weight fabric to achieve a home decorating weight fabric. (It’s like an iron-on muslin).

1. Prepare both sides of fabric for the front and back of the pillow. In this tutorial I made a pillow cover for a 14″ pillow, so I cut two 15″ squares from my fabric. I also ironed on lightweight interfacing to make my cotton fabric more of a home dec weight.

2. Take your prepared fabric, and align them with right sides facing together. Pin to keep the layers from shifting. On one edge, mark 2 inches from the top and bottom as shown below.

3. Along this edge, sew a 1/2 inch seam allowance. When doing so, use a regular stitch within the 2 inch markers, and then use the longest stitch length in the center (this is where the zipper will be). Make sure to back-stitch at the start and end, as well as before you begin a new stitch length.

Click to Enlarge.

4. Press the seam open with an iron. Take your zipper and unzip it half way. You can use a thin strip of tape to help keep the unzipped part closed.

6.  Here’s the satisfying part. 🙂 Flip the pillow cover right side up and use a seam ripper to tear open the long stitches you sewed from step 3. This will unveil your zipper.

7. Next, make sure the zipper is at least half way unzipped and then align your fabric once again with right sides facing together. Pin to keep the fabric from shifting. Sew a 1/2 inch seam allowance around the perimeter (as designated by the dashes below) except where the zipper is. clip the corners to get rid of extra fabric bulk.

7. Turn the pillow cover right side out through the zipper opening. Last but not least, make lots and lots of beautiful, cozy, bright and cheery pillows!