Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Another way to make a pillowcase: Tutorial

It's a rough week, so this pillowcase is my only finish.  It's part of a set and will go with the animal quilt in an upcoming drawing (I'll tell you more later).  There are a million pillowcase tutorials out there (see Google) so I thought as long as I was making one I'd throw in my two cents. This probably isn't a new way, and I'm not claiming it's the best way.  This is just my way :)  Maybe it will be helpful to someone else.


(These directions are for a standard size pillow. You can adjust the measurements for a larger size.)


First select three fabrics.  One for the body (3/4 of a yd should be enough), an accent or trim fabric, and a contrasting fabric for the sleeve. 


Cut 23.5"x36.5" for the body of the pillow, 0.75"x36.5" for the trim and 10.5"x36.5" for the sleeve. I didn't have enough to make the sleeve from one fabric.  If you have the same problem, cut equal pieces of two fabrics instead (10.5"x18.5") and sew them together.  The seam line will fall right on the crease of the pillow and be practically unnoticeable.


Head over to your iron and iron the trim fabric in half long-ways as if you were making really thin binding.


Iron the sleeve fabric in half long-ways as well.


Using an 1/8th inch seam sew the folded over trim fabric to the folded over sleeve, aligning all their raw edges.  This is just to hold things in place to make the next step easier. Whichever side of the sleeve you attach the trim to will be the outside of the sleeve on the finished pillow.  If your fabric is directional you'll need to decide which way you want it to be facing at this point.


Next flip over the sleeve/trim piece and align it with one of the long edges of the body piece.  Sew a quarter inch seam attaching the sleeve to the body with the trim sandwiched in between.


If your machine has a serging stitch use it to finish off the raw edges of the seam you just sewed.  (If you don't have a serging stitch a zig zag works, too, to keep the edges from fraying.)


Flip your pillowcase over to the right side.  Push the seam allowance underneath toward the end of the pillow (the sleeve) and the trim toward the body.  With a matching thread color straight stitch or use a tight zigzag to tack down the trim.


Using a thread that matches the sleeve, sew a slim 1/4" to the right of the trim, tacking the seam allowance to that side.



Turn your pillowcase wrong side out and fold it in half, matching the raw edges.  Starting at the sleeve, sew a 1/4" seam to join to two open sides.  Use your serging or zigzag stitch to finish the seam in the same way as before.  Turn right side out and Ta-Da! You're done!


Let me know if you have any questions/comments!

Linking up to Finish it Friday! Go checkout what everyone else is doing :)

3 comments:

  1. I like this because it has skinnier trim/accent color. I thought that part was kind of big on the mini peeks pillowcase and if I wasn't so lazy I would probably undo the whole thing and fix it

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  2. I like the accent color, too. It really pulls the other two fabrics together while also providing focal interest.

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  3. I've tried making pillowcases like this before (I really like the little pop of an accent color) but find my seams get so thick & bulky. Could you maybe use ribbon instead of a double thickness of accent fabric? Just curious. Darling pillowcase!

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