Hi, I'm Nienke, from the Dutch blog Pienkel and I'm very happy to meet all of you over here at So Sew Easy. For this first contributor post, I made you a tutorial for quite a basic yet versatile project: a pillow cover with an invisible zipper.
Inserting an invisible zipper was one of the sewing skills I didn't dare to undertake for a long time. However, as with most intimidating skills, once done it turned out fairly easy.
– Fabric. For a common 16″ square pillow, you'll need two 16″ squares of woven fabric without stretch. Quilting cotton is perfect for this purpose!
– One invisible zipper, 16″ long. If you'd like, a slightly shorter one would do, and if you have a longer one at hand that works as well, however the right size just makes it all a bit easier.
– Matching thread.
– Invisible zipper foot for your sewing machine. Mine is a cheap plastic universal one, works just fine! It is perfectly possible to sew an invisible zipper without an invisible zipper foot, it just takes a bit more effort. You do need a regular zipper foot then though.
– Regular sewing supplies, such as sewing machine, scissors and pins.
Now open your zipper and pin it to one piece of your fabric, raw edges aligned, right sides together. If the size of your zipper doesn't exactly match the size of the fabric, you can mark the center of the zipper and the center of the fabric and work from there.
Now, with the teeth of the zipper guided through the left dent of the zipper foot and the needle going straight along the teeth of the zipper, carefully sew all the way until the end of the zipper, or, if you get to the end and the runner of the zipper gets in the way, as far as you can get.
If you don't have an invisible zipper foot, first of all, I would highly recommend buying one. But if that's not an option, you can use your regular zipper foot as well. That way, you'll have to make sure you sew straight along the teeth yourself, without extra guidance. What might help in this case, is carefully ironing the teeth of the zipper flat before pinning and sewing. Don't use a too hot setting though, the teeth might melt.
This time around, guide your zipper through the other dent of the invisible zipper foot. The bulk of your fabric is to the right now and you'll be sewing the zipper from top to bottom just like on the other side.
Put your regular sewing foot back on and sew along the three edges with a straight stitch and a small seam allowance.
Make sure you secure your stitching by going back and forth a few stitches at the end! Repeat for the other corner.
These lines of stitching are to neatly finish the seam where the zipper ends. If your zipper has a different length, make sure your stitching doesn't end before the stitching of your zipper starts, the stitches of your corner stitching and the stitching of the zipper should just meet eachother, or even overlap slightly, but it shouldn't leave a hole.
Hi, I'm Nienke. Mother of three (2, 5 & 7), married to one, living on a tiny island in the Netherlands, enjoying home, sewing machine and creating. I blog about my creations and the rest of my life at pienkel.com, you’re very welcome to visit me there or on any of my social media!
Thank you so much for this!
Hi, Nienke. Loved your tutorial and ideas. Amazing design found at last. Thanks for sharing.