Sewing pillow cover - Instructions for a cushion cover

• material selection
• cut out
• It is sewn
• Sew on the zipper
• Lock variants

In this tutorial I want to show you how to quickly and easily sew a pillowcase yourself. In this case with an endless zipper.

Quick and easy to self-sewn pillowcase

Pillows not only beautify your own home, they are also a great gift. For example, you can create a "birth pillow" by embroidering or applying the child's name and birthday, and then decorating the pillow with some child motifs, such as a toy car, an owl, or a tree. Here you can let off steam creatively. The most beautiful is the result, if you think about the basic layout, where everything should go. As an aid, you can make stencils of paper to determine the space and size of each motif.

Difficulty level 2/5
(suitable for beginners)

Material costs 2/5
(depending on the choice of fabric between EUR 0, - from the remaining utilization and EUR 20, -)

Time expenditure 2/5
(including pattern and embellishment about 2.5 hours)

material selection

As in my last manual (sewing bread basket itself), I would like to introduce you today to another way to process cotton fabric. Depending on what you would like to use your pillow, simple cotton (decorative pillow with little stress) or upholstery fabric (cuddly pillow with high stress) is suitable. I opted for the simple cotton variant. Of course, you can also use your favorite jersey fabrics, but then it is absolutely necessary that you use an ironing fleece so that the fabric does not emanate. Nevertheless, a furniture or cotton fabric will be more beautiful in the long term.

Amount of material and the cut

First you need a pillow. You can either beautify an already existing upcycle, beautify a purchased one or you sew yourself a simple cushion of cotton fabric and fill it with stuffing cotton, for example. Then you measure their length and width and expects about 2 cm and you have your pattern. Of course you also need a back for the pillowcase, so 2 times.

In my case, the pillow is 52x55cm tall. So I need two pieces of fabric in size 54x57cm. Most cotton fabrics are at least 110cm wide, so I need a little over half a meter of fabric. And you also need a zipper a few inches shorter than your pillow length (about 8-10cm should be enough for my pillow size difference). I opted for an endless zipper.

Tip: If you use motif fabrics, always pay attention to which side up you sew together the two parts, so that the subject is then not upside down!

cut out

When cutting you do not have to pay attention to anything special. But if you want, you can make the front side (or the backside or both) in a patchwork style, embroider something or sew on appliqués.

You need:

• 1x front part
• 1x buttock

each with the previously measured / calculated dimensions.

Tip: For applications, reinforce the individual fabrics with non-woven fabric and iron with double-sided adhesive fleece, so that they can not slip when embroidering.

It is sewn

First, the fabrics are finished!

Then you put both fabrics right to right (ie with the beautiful sides) together and stitches that seam with a large straight stitch in which you want to sew the zipper. Here I like to take a color that stands out from the fabric, so that the threads can be easily removed later. In my case, the cotton fabric is green, so I chose brown for the color.

Then follows an important step: The seam is ironed from the left!

Then you put the zipper in the middle of the seam and draw the ends on the fabric. So you know where you can cut the seam to the maximum. Up to this point (or one or two stitches further you sew now the seam on both sides with a normal straight stitch in a matching color (in my case, green).

These steps are a great relief for beginners! Advanced users can also sew the two sides together and iron on the remaining length without stitching. At the same time you can either "close" the zipper with a simple zig-zag stitch on both sides or you sew the ends slightly overlapping and "locks" the seam.

Tip: How to get the slider on the zipper, is difficult to explain only in the text. But you will find numerous videos with instructions on the net.

Then you separate the seam between your two marks again. For this you pull the fabric slightly apart and slides carefully with the ripper between the two pieces of fabric.

Tip: To hedge for beginners: Put each a pin in the 90 ° angle to the two places, to which you want to break up, so you can not accidentally cut too far.

Sew on the zipper

Whether you sew on a conventional, non-divisible zipper or an endless zipper does not really make much of a difference, since you've already "locked" the ends of the zipper.

Now it's time to change the presser foot, if you have a zipper foot and then sew on one, then the other side of the zipper.

Without a special presser foot, you can choose a different needle position on your sewing machine. The most favorable position is as far as possible at the edge, so that the needle can sew along as close to the zipper as possible. Now when you come to the slider when sewing, leave the needle in the fabric and raise the presser foot. Then gently push the slider past the presser foot and sew to the end.

On the side where you keep the zipper in the preparations to the instructions above (like the endless zipper), until you have two ironed edges and the side seams in front of you. Thus, the still open cushion with the omission for the zipper lies in front of you and you have used the zipper presser foot.

Now you push the zipper under the fabric so that the slider is at one end of the opening and starts to sew right next to it. The edge of the fabric is always adjusted so that it rests exactly on the center of the zipper points, so that the seam is nicely straight.

When you get to the other end, continue sewing slowly until you get one or two stitches past the zipper end, then raise the presser foot (the needle stays in the fabric) and rotate your work piece 90 degrees so that you have a few Sew stitches over the end and "lock" the end by sewing back and forth a few times. Then you raise the presser foot again (the needle stays in the fabric again), you turn 90 degrees again and sew the other edge until you have reached the top again. Pay attention again that the edge rests in the middle of the zipper-prongs.

When you come to the end, open the zipper a few inches and gently move the slider past your presser foot (best is the needle in the fabric). Then you sew to the end and "locks" the seam as well as on the other side.

Tip: Before you start to sew on the zipper, please check whether it lies with the right side out!

3, 2, 1 ... done!

Now all you have to do is put the two fabrics right side on the right side (again the nice sides together) and sew the remaining three sides with a simple straight stitch. Make sure that the zipper is open a few inches, otherwise you will find it difficult to open it from the outside. The coating now only needs to be turned over and is "ready to move in".

Tip: To make the corners look nicer, cut them off at an angle. You can do that with a rotary cutter or a pair of scissors!

Lock variants

Of course, your creativity is synonymous with the type of closure nothing in the way!

For example, you can opt for a button placket, where you can even customize the individual buttons according to your mood. Apart from simply processing buttons in different colors and adding them as a special embellishment to your motif on the front of the pillow, you can purchase them with some skill and your favorite materials and thus upcycle them to great accessories.

Another option is the hotel closure, which simply makes a small bag with overlapping seams, into which you can punch the pillow. This variant is particularly quick and easy to sew and just as quickly the pillow is packed in it, so such covers are often used in hotels to save time, which also explains the significant name.

Tips for quick readers:

• Create cut (+ seam allowance)
• Trim with seam allowance and decorate if necessary
• Sew on the zipper seam, draw in the length, cut it, sew on the ends
• Sew on the zipper and lock it
• Sew the other three sides together
• Turning - ready!

The twisted pirate