Simple & Fun Sewing Project–Pillowcase, Lesson One

This was the first project the Sewing Class did this fall. And for several of the girls it was their favorite. It was fun to see the combinations the girls chose for their pillowcase fabrics. Some did flannel and some did calicoes. We had Christmas prints to pink camo.

If you have a fabric stash you probably have some fabrics that would make a fun pillowcase on hand. Today's instructions will be on cutting.

Pillowcase
These instructions will make one standard size pillowcase approximately 31” x 20”.
Make King size approximately 36” long. (Cut at least 5" longer.)

Fabric Requirements
Calicoes or flannels work well. Launder your fabrics before cutting to insure no shrinkage or color bleeding issues later!
    3/4 yard for body of pillowcase* (Border or lengthwise prints need 1 1/4 yd.)
    1/3 yard for end of pillowcase
    1/8 yard for accent strip (or 1 1/2” wide trim 42” long)
* Directional prints should run horizontally. Thus a lengthwise or border print will have the 41” cut along the selvage.

Here are the fabrics our sample will use.

Note: if you want you can just cut across the width of your fabric to get your 27" long, 10" long, and 3" long  and not trim the width to 41". Just line up all the pieces to the same side when stitching together and trim even after stitching the three pieces together. Just watch out for selvages with deeper markings than your seam allowance. See picture below.

o      From 3/4 yard, cut one piece 27” long by 41” wide. Body piece.

o      From 1/3 yard, cut one piece 10” long by 41” wide. End piece.

               This fabric design led me to center my 10" piece along the lines forming one of the rows of squares.

o      From 1/8 yard, cut one piece 3” long by 41” wide. Accent/trim piece

Next lesson: Sewing pieces together.

Lesson Two here

Lesson Three here