How to sew a zipper in pillow cover? / Jak wszyć zamek w poduszce?

Wersja polska wkrótce:)

Sewing zipper at the back means that you've got one side of a pillow to show and use. If you sew zipper like in zippered pouch you actually get two pillow fronts! This simple idea was already use by me HERE. Having 3 two-sided pillows on sofa means that you've got so many options of decoration your room! You can also use another option: front will be quilted of even embelish, but the back will be made of flannel or wholecloth. This way you can turn your pillow to the front, if you want to take a nap during the day:)

The zipper at the bottom allows your pillow standing really nice, so that's why I named this tutorial:

The main part of sewing zipper in pillow is based on the way of sewing zipper in pouch. If you haven't sew such zipper so far, just see THIS fabulous tutorial made by Kelby Sews.

I made in this method slight changes to make it more effective.

I also used one trick which I've seen on Polish blog (unfortunately the author didn't remember the source of this idea, if you know such tutorial, please let me know - I would love to give credits to it). The rest are just my thoughts, which give you some options of final look inside of pillow.

I skip details of some basic steps (you can find them in Kelby Sews tutorial).

Trim both ends of the zipper (zipper should have almost the same lenght as pillow bottom).

Cut from lining fabric two squares measuring exactly the same as your pillow front and back. Cut two stripes (long exactly the same as length of pillow bottom, wide about 2 1/2"). Sew stripes to the lining parts. Press the seems joining stripes and lining towards the lining. Put lining parts left side together, matching seems:

Draw using chalk line parallel to the seam between lining and stripe. The distance between the seam and line should be as wide as your zipper:

Stitch two lining parts on the line indicated by chalk. Open the seam:

Press the seam and put the trimmed zipper on it. The 'right side' of zipper opening should be matched exactly to the seam:

Pin the zipper and stitched it to the lining at the both sides of the zipper (really close to the edge of zipper ribbon). The special foot for sewing zippers won't be needed. Then fold the rest of the stripes to cover the edge of zipper edge, pin and stitch:

After stitching folded stripes, the zipper back should look like this (ok... yours will look better - I was in a hurry:):

Now the best part: turn on the lining on the other side and rip the seam in the middle. After ripping off the seam you'll see the zipper - perfectly hidden:)

After this, turn the lining on the left side and fold the lining to show the seam joing lining and solid part:

Put pillow front right side to the left side of lining as indicated at the above photo. Sew pillow front and lining together. Then do the same with the pillow back using the second seam joing lining and solid part. After you sew pillow front and back to the lining, you should get this:

The pillow cover is ready to last step (unfortunatelly, I didn't took good photo of last step... But Kelby did this perfect - just see HERE how the last step looks like). Firstly, remember to open the zipper. Then fold pillow front and back right sides together. Fold lining parts right sides together. And sew all around leaving a gap at the bottom (to turn pillow cover).

I promise that when I sew next pillow cover, I'll took photos to show this step:)

If something needs to be better shown or explained, please let me know!