DIY Zipper Bedding

After months of pining I went with a DIY Zipper bedding option that I’m so excited to share with you! What is zipper bedding anyway and why did I feel I MUST have it, you ask?

Well…a few months ago I fell into one of those traps . You know when Pinterest or Facebook or your whole computer just knows that you clicked on one single ad?

It was Beddy’s zipper bedding and I had fallen in love with the idea!

I was then of course inundated with Pins, ads, Instagram posts, etc on the product and at some point might have even convinced myself the price tag was worth it.

I love a made up bed, but I certainly don’t make my kids’ beds every morning. Do you guys?

Honestly the kids should make their own beds but at their age they lack the skills to make them well. However….with a little zipper action, even a toddler can make up a bed super easily!

Not only that, but zipper options stay made. If kids are playing in their room on their beds, a zipped up comforter stays looking neat!

I assumed Pinterest would be covered up in DIY options–it was not!

Maybe I didn’t use the right keywords, but I searched and searched and searched and I only found ONE person on the whole internet who had made their own and offered a tutorial.

Sew Cutesy on YouTube saved the day!

Since I needed two sets of zipper bedding, it was absolutely worth a shot to make them myself considering the real deal cost a couple hundred dollars EACH.

Full disclosure: I am not an expert with the sewing machine. In fact, the first sheet I cut I had the measurement numbers swapped around!!

When will I learn?! Measure twice, cut once.

Fortunately it was a sheet my son had been sleeping on for a while and thanks to a recent run in with a table and a gnarly eyebrow injury, it had suffered a few blood stains. I got them to where they were not noticeable… but at least buying him a fresh new set at under $25 meant no stains at all.

Not to mention, I only messed up the flat sheet…so now we have two fitted sheets as we enter the potty training stage!

Okay so you guys probably don’t care about me justifying my measuring issues but it makes me feel better 🙂

I needed:

All together the cost per zipper bedding set came to a little over $40! Yay! I have since noticed twin sheet sets and soft blankets at Aldi that would have this project ringing in closer to $30 total.

I will walk you through how I did this, but again this process mostly came from Miranda at Sew Cutesy. Her Youtube Channel is full of great projects and watching a video tutorial can’t be beat. She’ll inspire you to sew something!

Measure the mattress length and width wise. Mine was 79 long and I wanted the zippers to hit on the sides right around the 40 inch mark. Don’t forget to add your seam allowance.

Now cut your top fabric (for me the flat sheet) plus the soft blanket to size and lay them right sides touching. Pin around all 4 sides leaving a small area to be unsewn so you can pull it right side out.

Sew together, flip it out, cut and push out your corners, and now you can sew up the opening. At this point the tutorial said to top stitch around the entire thing so I did that too to help hold the blanket together.

Be careful about the top part and the soft underneath blanket not matching up perfectly. My sheet was almost a sateen and against that fleece it was a bit of a slippery nightmare to sew. Add that to me rushing and I ended up having some sloppy, inconsistent seams. So when it came to the next step of adding the zipper, it wasn’t straight and some of the white blanket shows through on top (see picture below).

The bedding is perfectly functional and most areas look neater so I don’t mind…but just be aware!

Next you need to add your zipper. I had never sewn on a zipper before, but it wasn’t bad at all, aside from dealing with my uneven sewing.

I took the zipper apart and sewed one half of it along the edge (right sides touching) of the topper blanket. Then repeat this to the other side so the two long sides of your blankets have half a zipper running down them.

Next you are going to work on the fitted sheet. I was lucky to have a grid/plaid fabric which made lining things up easier, but this was still a hard part of the project for me.

Miranda simply marks hers at the start (as seen in the video) However, since my inconsistent sewing left my top blanket a little wonky, I used that wonky top blanket as my guide once sewn.

I just laid it on top of the bed with the fitted sheet on it, and noted where the other half of the zipper will need to be for it to match up.

Once you know where the other side of your zipper should land, sew that half a zipper on the fitted sheet, right sides touching. Be sure to check before you sew that the zipper teeth are going to be facing the zipper teeth you sewed on the top blanket.

You know, so it will zip together!

I may or may not have had some help from a seam ripper around this time.

Once those other half zippers are sewn onto your fitted sheet, you can attach it to the top blanket by adding on your zipper pull!

The foot of the bedding is open at this point and per the tutorial, the easy way out is just top stitching it together.

Unfortunately, mine was a little messy. I had excess topper blanket so I sewed it closed the best I could. You can’t really see that part luckily. By now yall know I’m not entering any sewing competitions over here…

Don’t forget to add zipper stops (you can just use thread!) so the zipper pull doesn’t just come right off at the ends. I was actually so excited to put this thing on the bed I haven’t added those yet!

If you have basic sewing skills you can do this project. It may not look professional but I love the ease of zipping up the bed. I am not super excited about making another one (it was a good two nights–two late nights!) but little brother needs a match.

For what you would spend on most bedding options, you can create this customizable zipper bedding. If you don’t sew, Amazon does have a very similar zipper sheet setfor a great price.

Update: I finished the second DIY Zipper Bedding!!