Tutorial - Making a decorative pillow cover

I wanted to make a new throw pillow for the couch. Besides, it would be good to practice zippers and whatnot.

Finding the fabric -

Just down the street from me is an awesome home goods discount store. I am in there every other week or so to check out the new items, and see what has been discounted even more and is on the clearance rack. I found these great textured dinner napkins. They are polyester, so I know they would hold up well. And they are even a bit shiny, so I thought they would work and look nice. They were $2 each.

They are multi-toned brown napkins, 18 inches square. A perfect fit for the 18 inch pillow form I had.

The first step was attaching the zipper. I have a cat and dog, so I wanted to make sure I'd be able to wash the cover after they dirty it up, and I know they have plans already to dirty it up.

First, place the two wrong sides together, and sew one side with a 5/8 inch allowance, give or take. You will want to make "regular" stitches (& backstitch) on each end, but in between, open up the stitch length. This is just temporary. This is where your zipper will go.

Press your seem after sewing, and pin in your zipper, making sure you place the zipper teeth exactly on top of your temporary seam.

Stitch your zipper in place.

Once the zipper is in, feel free to remove your temporary stitches. Your zipper is done.

Next, unzip about halfway, and place the sides of your pillow cover wrong sides together.

Sew around the remaining three sides, making sure your stitches meet the zipper seam stitches.

You are done. It's easy. Turn right side out and insert your pillow form.