Sewing a Zipper Into a Pillow Cover: A Step-by-Step Guide
Adding a zipper to a pillow cover makes it easy to take the cover off and wash it whenever you like. You can either sew a cover from scratch or insert a zipper into a store-bought pillowcase or cover to keep the pillow tucked away. With a zipper foot on your sewing machine, this task is quite manageable.
By Rowan Rivera8 steps
Add a zipper to a pillow cover.
A zippered pillow cover lets you take the cover off whenever you need to and wash it. Another option is to insert a zipper into a pillowcase or cover you already own, so the pillow stays hidden inside. Putting in a zipper is not especially hard, provided your sewing machine has a zipper foot. If you plan to make the cover yourself, choose cotton, home decor weight fabric, or cotton canvas.
Step 1
For a cover made from scratch, cut your fabric into two squares that each measure 20 inches.
Step 2
Stack the two squares with their right sides facing each other. Pin them together along a single side.
Step 3
Set your sewing machine to its longest stitch length. Running 1/2 inch in from the edge, stitch the two squares together along the pinned side.
Step 4
Open the fabrics out flat and press the seam with an iron. Lay the zipper with its teeth facing down on the wrong side of the seam. Position the zipper so its teeth follow the seam line, then pin it. For a ready-made pillowcase or cover, unzip the zipper and pin one side to one edge of the opening, then pin the other side of the zipper to the opposite edge of the opening.
Step 5
Return your machine's stitch length to its normal setting. Take off the regular presser foot and put on the zipper foot.
Step 6
Stitch the zipper to the cover by sewing along the zipper teeth on both sides of the seam, or along each edge of the cover opening. Keep your stitching off the teeth themselves. When attaching a zipper to a ready-made case, leave it unzipped; when sewing it to a seam, keep it zipped.
Step 7
Take a seam ripper and remove the stitching from the seam of the cover you made from scratch. Unzip the zipper, then fold the fabrics back together with right sides facing in. Pin the three sides that have no zipper. If your zipper went into a ready-made case, just put the pillow in, close the zipper, and you are done.
Step 8
Stitch the pillow cover along those three sides, 1/2 inch from the edge. Turn the cover right side out, insert a 20-inch pillow form, and zip the zipper shut.
