Pillow Covers with Invisible Zippers

I finally conquered my fear of zippers. And made new pillow covers. Two birds with one stone! I used a tutorial from one of my favorite blogs, Craftiness is Not Optional. I only did a couple of things differently...

Jess, from Craftiness is Not Optional, suggests cutting the fabric the same size as the pillows, but I just couldn't do it. My pillows are 16"x16". I cut my fabric 17"x17" because I like having (a lot of) wiggle room. I used a 1/2" seam allowance.

I used my new invisible zipper foot that I bought on Black Friday. I was surprised at how easy it is to use and how close it stitches along the side of the zipper teeth.

I did run into one problem. Using the invisible zipper foot, I could not sew around the zipper pull. 

I decided just to sew up the rest by hand.

After completing these pillows, I read a post on another of my favorite blogs, See Kate Sew, about installing invisible zippers. Kate suggest using a regular zipper foot before sewing with the invisible zipper foot. Although I have not tried it yet, I believe this should fix the problem. I guess this is another sewing tip that I learned the hard way. Sewing Tip Learned the Hard Way #4: Use a regular zipper foot to sew around the zipper pull of an invisible zipper.

Even with the zipper issue, the zippers are quite invisible. And I think that the pillows look nice sitting on the couch.