I LOVE the way these came out! I had some sweaters in my closet that I haven't worn in a long time, so I thought I would re-purpose them into covers for my icky couch pillows.
My sweaters happen to have zippers on them, so this makes this tutorial even easier!
The first step is to flatten your sweater out and line up the seams. Then unzip about 1/4 of the way to make sure your zipper pull is UNDER where you will be cutting. Using a rotary cutter and straight edge, cut just under the arm pits, stopping at the zipper, I used some heavy duty scissors to cut through the zipper and then continued with the rotary cutter.
Next, turn inside out and take to your sewing machine. You can pin the edges if you want, I usually don't. It makes no difference if you sew the top or bottom first, but when you get to the bottom part of the zipper, STOP, back stitch and clip your thread. Then sew from the opposite end until you get to the bottom of the zipper again, back stitch. You won't be able to sew through this part so it is necessary to sew into the center from either side. I hope this makes sense! When you sew the top portion of the sweater, where you made the cut, just make sure when you get to the open zipper, you put them as close together as you can so that the zipper goes all the way up when we are finished.
Turn right side out through the unzipped hole you made at the beginning.
Now you can unzip all the way and stuff your pillow in! I was lucky enough to have pillows that fit perfectly, even a little tight, which I think looks nicer. Then I embellished with broaches (the zipper flower is from an etsy shop) and flowers I made with scraps, including a little lace from my wedding gown! You can easily find tutorials for fabric flowers just about anywhere. The best part is that I just used safety pins to attach them, so they can easily be removed when the covers need washing.
And TA DAA!!! Cute "new" pillows to help brighten up a BLAH winter day!!!
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