As I wrote in yesterday's post I sewed some pillow cases over the weekend.
Felt is was time for some new ones as I found some cute fabrics at a fleamarket (the tomatos) earlier this summer, some on etsy (the green ones) and also a bit of my favourite elephant print, in yellow this time, (from Svenskt Tenn).
As you can see I don't match the zipper or thread to the fabrics. I go with white. This way I can get a bunch of zippers and thread and just go for it when I feel the urge to sew.
I received some comments a while back asking about how I sew the covers so as I was making them I took some photos. Ran into a couple of problems along the way though. 1) The pressure presser (thanks Anna for the correct word for it !) foot (hope that's what it's called in English) for zippers has gone missing. I searched everywhere but can't find it. Extremely odd! This means the zipper is more visible than it would be normally. 2) I made a mistake cutting the fabric so the pattern on the front and back don't match. Bummer!
Anyway, here we go.
Cut two pieces of the same size of the prewashed fabric. In my case the pillow will be 40x40 cm (16"x16"). Add a little bit more that 1/4 inch (1 cm) to each side for seam allowance. Always see to it that the right sides are facing each other.
Zig zag around the two pieces to prevent fraying.
Pin the zipper to the two pieces. Make sure all the good bits are against the table at this point, the zipper pull and the print.
Stitch the zipper to the pieces of fabric. When you get to the zipper pull, lift the lever at the back of the sewing machine and...
...pull the zipper pull backwards. Release the lever and continue sewing.
This is what it should look like when you turn the fabric at this point. Here you can see both of my mistakes. If I had used the correct pressure presser foot the zipper would be less visible and if I had aligned my pattern the pillow would have looked better made... Well, well, these things happen.
Now it's time to pin the right sides together. Make sure you've unzipped at this point or you'll have problems turning the cover right side out later.
Stitch the sides. Starting at the beginning of the zipper and ending at the other end. This for me is the trickiest part. You sort of need to pull the ends of the zipper away from the fabric to be able to sew close enough to it so there's no hole at the end. If there still is a gap/hole/void I usually just ignore it because after putting the filler pillow inside, the zipper ends up downwards anyway and you won't notice.
For nice corners, cut them at a diagonal fairly close the the stitching. This makes the corners neater when turned inside out. If your fabric is very thin you don't need to do this but if its heavier it helps.
Turn your cover right side out and iron the edges for a neat look.
Tadaaaa!
