I couldn’t really decide what to call this this DIY round pillow. Half-and-half round pillow? Half-split round pillow? Let me know if you think of a good name for it! Whatever you call it, it’s a fun way to play with pattern and color, and use up scraps of cute fabric. Or have an excuse to buy more fabric, which we always need 😉

Here’s the backside of my pillow:

I kept it pretty neutral, but you could go for a fun pattern on this side, too. And don’t think you’re limited to upholstery fabrics. I used lighter-weight cottons (or cotton-linen blends? I’m not actually sure), and used fusible interfacing to bulk them up a bit.

This DIY round pillow would look cute with a tassel or pom-pom on the zipper pull to add a little bit of extra pizzazz, don’t you think? I’ll be adding a pom-pom as soon as I can find my darn pom-pom maker!

My round pillow is pretty low-contrast, but the shiny exposed metal zipper looks pretty with darker fabrics, too. I’ve seen a dark blue or green velvet round pillow with an exposed zipper that was stunning. And I considered using a zipper with brightly-colored tape for an extra pop of color. So there are a ton of possibilities here, it’s all up to you!

DIY Round Pillow with Exposed Zipper

Materials

3 different patterns/colors of fabric, washed and ironed
Round pillow form
Fusible interfacing – Unnecessary if you’re using upholstery-weight fabric.
Zipper with metal teeth 1-inch shorter than the diameter of your pillow form.
Thread
Paper

Tools

Sewing machine
Zipper foot
Scissors for fabric
Scissors for paper
Pencil or pen
Round plate or dish of the size of your pillow form.
Ruler
Sewing pins

Steps

1. Find a large plate, dish or bowl that matches your pillow form size. Mine has a 15-inch diameter. Lay it on a large piece of paper (newspaper works), and trace around it. Cut out the circle, and fold it in half. Lay the half-circle on paper, and trace around it, then measure to extend the flat edge by 1/2-inch. Cut out this outline. You should now have one full circle, and two slightly-extended half circles for your patterns.

2. Use your paper patterns to cut out the fabric, and fusible interfacing if you’re using it. If your fabric is upholstery-weight you don’t need it, but since mine wasn’t, I used mid-weight fusible interfacing. Follow the directions to fuse it onto the backside of the fabric using an iron. 
3. Place the zipper face-down on one half-circle piece of the fabric right-side-up. Line up the straight edge with the zipper, and pin in place. With a zipper foot on the machine, sew, then repeat for the other half-circle. (If you need a more detailed zipper tutorial, this exposed zipper tutorial is helpful.)

4. Press the fabric with your iron, then topstitch the fabric around the zipper.

5. Pin the two halves of the pillow together, and sew around the perimeter. Remember to leave zipper open so you can turn the pillow right-side-out! (I know I’ve forgotten this at some point in the past, and actually had to rip out stitches to get the zipper open.)

6. Clipping the curves will help the fabric pucker less. Use your fabric scissors to clip little triangles about 1/8-inch in from the seamline.

7. Turn your pillow right-side out, press with an iron, and insert your pillow form.