It’s been almost a year since we moved into our new home…but it feels like I’m just now getting started making it my “real” home. For instance, the week we moved in I had my sewing room/game room painted a beautiful color turquoise. The only problem is… it’s a horrible color turquoise! No matter how many times I say, as I go up the stairs to the sewing room , “I love the color! I love the color! I do love the color!”… I do NOT love the color. In fact, I don’t even just sort of kind of a little bit like it. I loathe it to be exact.
I paid a painter to paint it. Catch my drift…??? It’s just not worth it to me right now to PAY again to have it “fixed”… so I keep trying to come up with more ways to fill the room with fabrics and items that will absorb some of the Taco Cabana blue that’s splattered everywhere.
The latest attempt ….. PILLOWS! And not just pillows… ZIPPERED PILLOWS!
You are going to LOVE how fast and easy these are! The crazy thing is that this zipper technique makes making the pillows with a zipper FASTER than making them without… don’t you just love me for saying that!!!!
Here’s how I made these fun little ditties…
(I’m basically doing the same thing I do for my LINED ZIPPER POUCHES… only I’m not lining these. If you’re using stuffing instead of a pillow form, then you’ll want to line your pillows….so just do exactly what I did for the pouches. Only- call it a pillow instead of a pouch!)

I started with my fabrics, some caning cord for embellishment, and zippers. (you’ll also need a pillow insert or stuffing … but seriously, you already knew that!) I used two different fabrics cut to the same size, and be sure to purchase zippers that are quite a bit longer than your pillow – trust me on this!

I first embellished the pillow the way I wanted. I chose chair caning jute and just sewed it straight up the middle. Then, here’s where the pillow part starts, place one side of the pillow in front of you – ride side up. Place your zipper – upside down – along the upper edge.

Now sew the zipper to the pillow along the top edge like shown…. you’ll have to look closely because I chose to use white thread! sorry!!!

When you fold your zipper to the front, it should look like this. Of course – you now need to iron it… sorry!

Now put your other pillow piece on top, wrong side up, and line it up with the zipper. Then sew to the zipper.

After you press the zipper again, open up the zipper about half way… trust me – you don’t want to forget this step!

Now fold the two sections over, right sides together and fold the open zipper parts like this. Next, you’ll sew down along the side, the bottom and back up the other side – forming a stitched square (the zipper making the 4th side).

Again, my thread is too light to see clearly, but if you bring your face to the screen and squint – you can see the stitching all the way around … maybe… sort of…

Oh girl – you’re almost done! clip your corners and trim off the excess zipper ends. Turn right side out.

You’ll get THIS!!! A zippered pillow! I have made them with “hidden” zippers that take a long time, and I have made them like this in a jiffy. Personally, I think saving an hour beats not seeing the zipper! Maybe that’s just me…
Now for more photos…. the pillows’ selfies…..
What a difference a pillow makes, huh!?!
The breakdown:
Cost: I used fabric I already had and pillow forms I already had, so my only cost was zippers. At about $2.50 each, the cost is $7.50!!! LOVE that!
Time: Trust me when I say that you can make these pillows in about 15 minutes per pillow… after you’ve cut them out… maybe even faster if you time yourself!
I hope you’ll try this out… the worst thing that will happen??? You’ll have one very large zipper pouch for traveling!