Pillowcase Tutorial

I got my packet from the 1 Million Pillowcase Challenge today and figured it was a great time to do some pillowcases.  Aside from that, I had Adam's (Maegan & Wade's dad) 2 kids for the day since he was so sick and his wife Anne had to work.  We made pillow cases and they turned out to be a big hit!

All the fabrics are from our own Chickadee Quilt Shop and the Robots and Ballerina fabrics are BRAND NEW and not even up on the website yet! 

These are the actual pillowcases my twins use.  These poor pillowcases have been through so much:  thrown up on, drenched in milk and who knows what else, dragged on many of our travels, and washed a gazillion times.  They have held up so well and whenever my big kids (my teenagers Maegan and Wade) have friends over, they always comment on the girls pillowcases (we also have some for each season/holiday of the year.) When Sophie and Lillie were born we color coded them so I could tell them apart at first glance.  Lillie was assigned the color pink and Sophie was assigned the color purple.  We also assigned them certain sides of the crib so I didn't accidentally nurse the wrong baby twice (WHICH I ONLY DID ONCE!!).  Lillie is the left side and Sophie is the right side.  When they got their big girls' bed they got to choose sides and they both stuck with their original sides.  So Lillie has the pink Dora pillow and Sophie has the purple Dora pillow

Super Easy Pillowcase Tutorial

These pillowcases fit a standard size pillow and only took me about an hour to make. 

Fabric Requirements:  Choose 3 coordinating fabrics

• Pillowcase Body:  3/4 yard
• Cuff:  1/3 yard
• Accent piece:  2" x WOF

The Accent piece ends up being about 3/4" wide when finished.  If you want a larger accent strip, you will want a wider cut.

Robots by Ingrid for Moda Fabrics

Ballerina by Ingrid for Moda Fabrics

It's a Hoot by Momo for Moda Fabrics

1. Iron all your fabrics - use starch.  I promise even though it is another step, it really does make a difference keeping the fabric from moving and shifting/stretching while you sew.

2.  Take your 2" x WOF Accent Piece and Iron in half

 

3.  Take your Cuff piece and lay out length wise.  Pin your Accent piece to your Cuff piece matching Raw edges.  You will be removing these pins a few more times so don't go too crazy on the pins just yet.  This is just to keep the Accent piece in place.

4.  Take the Body, open up lengthwise - FACE DOWN.  Line up with the raw edges and layer face down on the 2" Accent piece and Cuff.  If you are using a directional fabric, take the time to line it up so it goes in the direction you want.  Re-pin in place.

5.  Take the unpinned raw edge of the Body and fold up about 2" BELOW pinned raw edge.  You will continue the fold until the entire body is folded (this will all be about 2" below the pinned raw edges).  You will be sewing a seam along your pinned edge and you don't want folded body of the pillowcase to get caught in the seam - that is why we folded the rest of it the 2" below the pinned edges. 

This is another photo showing the Body of the pillowcase being folded 2" below the pinned raw edge.

6.  Now that the Body is folded, you will want to check your edges and make sure the selvages are straight and the grains are straight.  Your edges will not always line up perfectly as there are small variances in the widths of fabrics.  Your goal here is keep the grain straight so after it is sewn the fabric isn't twisted or skewed in one direction or the other and the whole thing lays straight.

7.  Once your edges are straight you will enclose your pillowcase body with the Cuff (which was your bottom or first layer) folding the raw edge even with the pinned raw edges.  Pin all layers in place:  Cuff, 2" Accent, 1 edge of the Pillowcase Body, Cuff.  Again, be sure the grain of the fabric is straight and not pulled to the left or right.

Another view of the Cuff pinned in place with the pillowcase body inside.

8.  Sew a 3/8" - 1/2" seam of your pillowcase "tube". 

A view of the tube sewn.

9.  Trim the selvedges of each end of your tube.  Be sure to check after you cut that you trimmed far enough to get the selvages from ALL the layers - including the pillowcase Body.

10.  After each end is trimmed, gently pull the pillowcase body out through the end - turning it inside out.

This is what it will look like when turned.

With all my picture taking my little Lillie wanted one of her (especially since Sophie got her picture taken in the dress earlier)!

11.  Turn the pillowcase over to the back side.  Iron the cuff from the seam to about 3/4 up.

A handy picture showing the iron in action.  If it weren't for quilting/sewing I'm not sure our iron would ever get any use!!

12.  Turn the Pillowcase right side up and you will need to pull the Cuff away from the Accent piece a bit and iron that straight.  This is when you will iron all the way to the end of the Cuff.

A nicely ironed cuff

13.  To do the French Seam you will fold the pillowcase WRONG sides together first.  I switched sewing feet to my 1/4" to get a smaller seam.  Sew down the side edge and then you will sew the bottom edges.

Sewing the bottom edge.

14.  Turn INSIDE OUT and iron the seam to one side.

Another view of the seam being ironed.

15. I switched feet back to my 3/8" and sewed a seam down the side and bottom again. This second seam encloses the first seam so there are no unfinished edges.

TA DA!  A super cute pillowcase.  I sent this one home with Adam's 3 year old, Landon.  He was pretty proud of his robot pillowcase especially because he helped me with pulling the pins and snipping threads.

I made this cute Owl one for Adam's 7 year old Caitlynn

And my little Sophie - who at 4 years old is already a fashionishta, picked out this one for herself.

Enjoy and please let me know if you have any questions!