DIY Pillowcase

I made some cute pillowcases for the kids a little while ago and wanted to share them with you. They were rather easy to make but a little more fun than your typical pillowcase. Here are two that I made for the boy's room. They include a soft baby blue fabric for the main section and a black and white chevron pattern on the ends with a jewel toned blue accent.

I will very quickly show you how to make these using some different fabric I used to make additional pillow cases.  There is a link below to a video tutorial. First here is what you'll need:

• 1 yard of your favorite soft fabric for the main section of the pillow
• 1/4 yard of fabric for the end piece
• 36" by 4" piece of accent fabric
• scissors
• rotary cutters if you have them
• rubber mat if you have one
• thread
• yard stick
• sewing machine of course, although you could hand stitch a pillowcase too.

First, always wash and iron your fabric before you get started.  

Second,  if the fabric store hasn't cut your fabric for you, cut out 1/4th of a yard of fabric for your end piece and your 36" by 4" accent piece. You can use scissors or your rotary cutter and mat. I am lucky enough to have a rotary cutter so it makes things quite easy. 

 Here is my 4 inch accent piece.  Next, fold this piece in half long ways and press flat.

Next line up your accent piece with open end on top of right side the end piece of your pillowcase.

Then put your main 1 yard of fabric piece wrong side down on top of everything making sure to line up all three pieces. Then you'll roll up the top portion into a roll like so.  Bring the bottom piece of fabric up to the top so that it's also lined up with the top.

Pin all the layers together, so that the rolled up section is inside.  

Then stitch down the side with your pins about with 1/2" seam making sure all your pieces are lined up.

Once you make your straight stitch you turn it inside out and your left with something that looks like this.  Use your iron to press it all flat and then you'll want to make a top stitch below that first section of fabric before the accent piece.

Next trim off the ends so everything is lined up.  After that, zig zag stitch around all of the rough edges.

Then fold in half with the right sides of fabric facing each other and stitch around all three sides about 5/8" for the seam.  Then turn it right side out and press again and that's it!  Also, make sure to measure the length of your pillow because you won't necessarily need the whole length of fabric. You can cut it down to your desired length. 

All in all I made 5 pillow cases!  Four for the boys and this one for my daughter.  It was so fun, I think we'll only have custom pillowcases from now on. :)

Here is the tutorial video I followed to make these pillows.  It's really helpful to watch ahead of time.  Enjoy your new one of kind custom pillowcases!

xo

Cathleen