How to Sew a Boppy Cover (without a zipper!)

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Hey Y’all.  So today I thought I’d share my experience and tutorial on how to sew your own boppy cover!  This is a task that I have not attempted before.  I did some research and found a few tutorials that showed how to make one, but they incorporated sewing in a zipper.  While I am acquainted with my sewing machine, I am not a professional seamstress!  So I was more comfortable finding a way to sew a boppy cover without the use of a zipper.

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What you need:

I wanted to make my little boy who is on the way, a boppy cover that matches the theme of his nursery (which is northwoods and buffalo plaid).  I used an extra crib sheet that I had for my fabric.

Step One: I printed out a boppy cover pattern that I got from a blog called Vanilla Joy.  You can print yours here.The pattern originally came from a blog called economical baby.  Print all the pieces and tape them together.  (I realize now that the grey areas should not be showing, so make sure when you tape them together that you overlap the grey areas.  This would have saved me time on my next step.)

Step 2:  Fold your original boppy cover in half and lay it over the pattern.  You want 1/2″ of pattern outside of the boppy cover.  I took a pencil and drew where I wanted to trim this down and then took a pair of scissors and cut.  You can also just lay your original cover onto your fabric and draw around it, leaving 1/2″.

Step 3:  Fold your fabric in half and line up the pattern to the folded edge of the fabric.  Pin the pattern to the fabric and then cut!  This will be your top piece of the boppy cover.

Step 4: You will want to do the exact same thing again, except this time, leave an extra 2 inches between the pattern and the folded edge of the fabric, as shown below.  Pin and cut!  This is your bottom piece of the boppy cover.

Step 5:  Once you have your bottom piece cut, you will want to cut the fabric in half, at the folded edge, as shown below.

Once you unpin, the fabric pieces should look like this!

Step 6:  At the edge you just cut, you will want to fold in 1/4″ and iron the edge down.  This makes sewing your edge so much easier!

I went ahead and pinned my edge before ironing so that I made sure I had the right measurements.  But don’t iron the pins!  I learned the hard way that they melt, haha!

Step 7:  Fold the same edge another 1″ in and iron down.  (sorry the picture is a little blurry 🙂 )

Step 8:  Once you’ve ironed down the edge, you’ll want to sew a 7/8″ seam.  I used a zig zag stitch.  Remember to backstitch at the beginning and end of the seams for durability!

Step 9:  Once you’ve sewn the stitch, lay all of your fabric pieces out to get ready to pin!  The bottom piece will be placed face up, and the top piece (actually 2 pieces) will be placed face down with the middle edges overlapping.  Pin pin pin!  You’ll never regret pinning too much!

Step 10:  Now sewing a 1/2″ seam all the way around.  I personally want to make sure this boppy cover will last, so I started with a zig zag seam and then did a second round of a straight stitch.

Step 11:  Once you are finished, flip the cover right side out and stuff your boppy pillow in it!  (this seemed like a tight fit as it was going in, but it fits perfectly!

{ I did have to trim down my sides a little bit more, as seen in the picture above.  There was just a little extra fabric, so I flipped it inside out, took a pencil and drew a round line along the edge that I had just sewed.  I sewed a new seam along the line, and it turned out great! }

I also saw on another blog post that you can cut small flaps about 1/2″ apart along your edge (when flipped inside out) to help with making the fabric “round out” and shape to the boppy pillow.  I, however, did not do that and it turned out great, but I wanted to share that information to you!

Big thanks to kalleymade.blogspot.com for her tutorial!  I heavily followed this if you need more pointers!

Have you taken on this task?  What did you do differently?  How did your boppy pillow cover turn out? 🙂  I’d love to hear from you!