Kuschelkissen sew with zipper - instructions and tips

• preparation
• patterns
• Sew on cuddly pillows

Whether for the couch, as a decorative cushion for chairs or to cuddle in bed: A cuddly pillow can always be needed and not only gives visually a lot! In the following guide, I'll show you how to sew a pretty cloud with sleepy eyes. We simply embroider the eyes with needle and yarn by hand, the zipper is on the underside of the pillow and is therefore almost invisible.

Which material you use is entirely up to you and your preferences. To make the pillow even cuddly, jersey fabric is conceivable. Here, however, should be considered that you need a uniform filling, because the stretchy jersey slightly bulging. Also cotton woven fabric or linen fabric are perfect for sewing the pillow. The fabric trade also has its own decor fabrics for cushions made of cotton and polyester.

With the help of our pattern, the pillow gets the shape of a small, sleeping cloud: Perfect for cots or the buggy of our little ones.

preparation

You need this:

• Cotton fabric, jersey or linen (old pillow or blanket covers)
• ruler
• scissors
• matching zipper
• black yarn
• needle
• Pillow filling or filling material
• our pattern (seam allowance already included)

Difficulty level 1/5
Suitable for beginners

Cost of materials 1/5
depending on the fabric about 5 - 10 EUR

Time expenditure 2/5
about 1.5 hours

patterns

Step 1: First, print out our pattern on A4 paper and glue the sides together with adhesive tape. Make sure that the actual print size is always set to 100%. The cuddly pillow could otherwise be too small or certain parts distorted.

Step 2: Then cut out the cloud at the designated lines.

ATTENTION: The seam allowance is already included in our pattern!

Step 3: Now lay the pattern on the fabric and draw the contours of the cloud and cut it out with a pair of scissors or the rotary cutter. If you - like me - use an old pillowcase, you can simultaneously cut out both layers of fabric at the same time.

Tip: If you have laid the fabric twice or cut it out of an existing cushion cover, it is best to fix the fabric layers with a few safety pins so that the material does not slip.

Sew on cuddly pillows

Step 1: First, we take the front of the pillow and draw the sleeping eyes (see pattern) with a pencil as fine as possible on the fabric. Make sure that you really only leave a single thin line on the fabric: this will not be visible after embroidering the eyes.

Step 2: Now we embroider our eyes in the fabric. To do this, we take the black (or brown) yarn, divide it into two parts (3 threads) and, at first, pierce the fabric with the needle from below through the fabric.

Tip: For fabrics with easily divisible threads - such as linen - an embroidery needle without lace can be used. For jersey fabrics or woven cotton, I recommend using a sewing needle so that the needle can easily pierce through the fabric.

At a distance of approx. 2 mm, pierce the fabric again and 2 mm further from bottom to top. Now we can start with the so-called backstitch to embroider the sleeping eyes: The needle goes back by 2 mm and then cuts further forward from below from the fabric. He leaves a gap that will be filled with the next stitch and so on.

Step 3: Using the backstitch, embroider both eyes, including the four eyelashes, and knot the yarn firmly on the back.

Step 4: To attach the zipper to the cuddly cushion, place it between the front and back. Then flip it right to right onto the fabric for the front of the cloud so that the edges meet, and carefully fold both layers together.

Step 5: Now sew the stuck line with the straight stitch of the sewing machine. Make sure that the needle does not hit the points of the zipper, otherwise it will break off very easily.

Tip: Most sewing machines come with different feet. With the zipper foot, the closure is easier to attach and the seam is closer to the serrations. This makes the zipper as invisible as possible.

Step 6: We'll do the same for the back of the cloud. The zipper should now be nicely embedded within the two fabric layers.

Step 7: Next, we put both sides of the fabric together right to right and tie the edges with needles or Wonderclips. The zipper must be at least halfway open, so we can turn the cloud in the next step.

Step 8: Step around the entire cloud. The pillow can now be turned.

Step 9: Finally, our cuddly pillow is filled. You can either use the filling of an inner pillow or other filling material.

For a jersey cushion, we recommend a slightly more homogeneous filling, such as small styrofoam beads or padding for bean bags. With a classic polyester filling jersey fabric bulges easily by its elasticity and the surface is wavy and misshapen. For a cuddly pillow made of linen and cotton woven fabric, however, commercial cushion fillings made of polyester are perfectly suitable.

That's it - our cuddly pillow is ready!

I wish you a lot of fun sewing!