How To Sew A Cushion With Zipper

Throw pillows are a great way to add flair to any room without changing the entire decor theme. Today I’m going to show you how easy it is to DIY throw pillows rather than spend a ton of dough buying them in store. Get the Design Space file by clicking here.

diy sewn christmas pillows

If you’ve ever shopped for throw pillows then you know how expensive they can be, especially for really cute ones. Instead of spending a small fortune on holiday throw pillows I decided to make my own.

diy sewn zippered throw christmas pillows

At first I wanted to make envelope style throw pillows to use with pillow inserts. Then I decided I’d rather use up the rest of my Poly-Fil so I could finally get rid of the box. I had a bag of zippers so I decided to put them to use. I was surprised how easy it was to make DIY zippered throw pillows without a video tutorial. I found this video later that is almost identical to how I did it, so I know it works.

diy sewn zippered throw christmas pillows

What I loved most about making these pillows was that they were very forgiving. I’m not great at pinning pieces together before sewing. I always end up with edges that don’t match up. That didn’t matter with these pillows since I left almost 2 inches for a seam allowance and mess ups. I still have 13 inch pillows and you can’t tell that before they were turned inside out they were a hot mess.

diy sewn zippered throw christmas pillows

Another thing I absolutely love these pillows is that anyone with a sewing machine can make them. They are literally the easiest thing I’ve ever sewn. My seams are crooked and I had to go over a couple a few times to close up gaps. Once they’re flipped right-side out though you can’t even tell.

The addition of a zipper lets you add and remove stuffing to suit your tastes. The zipper also keeps the stuffing inside so there’s no mess to clean up later.

diy christmas pillows

I bought most of the materials for these DIY holiday throw pillows from JOANN. I bought the zippers in bulk on Amazon (I was going to make purses but never got around to it.) The Red Buffalo Check Christmas Cotton Fabric was less than $5.00 a yard and the Poly-Fil was around $30. I only used like $4.00 worth of stuffing for all three pillows. I used glitter Iron-On vinyl which was under $14.00 and I only used part of two sheets for all three pillows. I’d estimate the total cost for all three pillows at under $16.00. You’ll be hard pressed to find three holiday throw pillows at that price anywhere, which makes this DIY project perfect for all wallets.

diy christmas pillows

DIY Zippered Christmas Pillows

Yield: 3 Pillows
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Active Time: 20 minutes
Additional Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Estimated Cost: $16

Materials

  • 1 yard of holiday fabric
  • 12 oz. fiber filling
  • 3 zippers
  • 1 sheet gold glitter Iron-On vinyl
  • 1 sheet silver glitter Iron-On vinyl
  • 1 sheet white Iron-On vinyl

Tools

  • Scissors or Rotary Cutter
  • Sewing Machine
  • Cricut cutting machine
  • Easy Press or Iron
  • Presser Foot

Instructions

  1. Use a rotary cutter or scissors to cut 6 pieces of fabric (one for the front and one for the back of the pillow) in identical sizes. If you want 13" pillows, cut 14" pieces of fabric (lengthwise and widthwise).
  2. diy sewn zippered throw christmas pillowsPair up the pieces, having the patterned sides together, so it's like they're kissing. Keep one pair to work on and set the other two aside.
  3. Lay the zipper along the bottom edge of the fabric and mark just before and just after with pins. Be sure to not actually pin the zipper itself, you're just marking the location right now.
  4. Sew a standard stitch from the edge to the pin, backstitching to start and stop the stitch. Repeat with the other side. Use a basting stitch to fill in the area where the zipper will go. DO NOT BACKSTITCH since we'll be removing this later.
  5. Open the newly sewn seam and iron it to keep it open. Place the zipper face down and pin it in place.
  6. Replace the standard foot with the zipper foot and be sure the machine is set to a standard stitch (not basting).
  7. diy sewn zippered throw christmas pillowsStarting at the bottom right side of the zipper, sew down the zipper's side. Stop the machine near the end. Leave the needle down and raise the foot. Carefully move the zipper pull behind the needle. Lower the foot and sew to the end of the zipper. Backstitch at the end of this seam to reinforce the stitch.
  8. Change the zipper foot to the left position, and repeat the above step on the left side.
  9. Use a seam ripper to remove the basting stitches.
  10. Switch back to the standard presser foot and lay the fabric down again so that the printed sides are touching. Line up the unsewn edges and pin in place.
  11. Sew each side of the pillow, backstitching to start and stop the stitches.
  12. Turn the pillow right-side out and zip/unzip to make sure everything is working properly.
  13. how to sew a cushion with zipperOpen Design Space and cut the designs, following the prompts as necessary.
  14. how to sew a cushion with zipperUse the Cricut Heat Guide to make sure you're using the right temperature, time, and pressure for your materials.
  15. Fill the pillows with fiber filling.

Did you make this project?

Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Pinterest

Will you be making your own DIY Zippered Christmas Pillows this year?

Similar Posts

One Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *