Pillowcases with French-seams

I bought.....yes, you heard me bought a new bedspread.  We were is desperate need as the 30's pinwheel quilt I made 16 years ago had seen better days......MUCH better days.  It was time for retirement and a new look.

I have no time nor inclination to make a queen size quilt, so off to Target I went.  And for a mere $50 and 1/2 hour of time a got a nice reversible two-tone aqua quilt.  It was just what I wanted, perfect color and everything, it just needed wild pillowcases to punch it up a bit.

Pillowcases are the easiest thing to sew and if you're like me and don't have a serger, french-seams are a nice was to finish the seams.

Here is a quick tutorial for making pillowcases with french-seams.

For one pillowcase cut the following:
Body Fabric: 25 1/2" x 41"
Accent Fabric: 1 3/4" x 41"
Cuff fabric: 10" x 41"


Making the Pillowcase Body

Attach the accent strip to the cuff and press the seam to the accent strip.  Attach the body fabric to the accent strip.  Press the seam to the accent strip.  Your pillowcase now looks like this:

Make sure that all edges are even, trim if needed.  It seems that after I don't how many years of sewing and quilting I still have trouble with this.....I think I cut something wrong!  So pay attention as you cut!

Press the raw edge of the cuff under 1/4" (sorry about the pic, my battery was fading fast).

Fold the cuff to the inside, covering the accent seam up to the stitching.

Use a few pins on the wrong side to hold in place making sure the accent seam is covered.  The turn to the right side and pin (remove the pins from the back BEFORE you start to sew).  Using matching thread, top stitch along the accent strip about an 1/8" from the edge.  This is what the front should look like:

This is what the underside should look like:

Making the French-Seam

Fold the pillowcase in half, WRONG sides together, lining up raw edges on 2 sides.  Stitch a very narrow 1/4" or 1/8" seam on these 2 sides.  Although hard to see, it will look like this:

If you had sewn a 1/4" seam, carefully trim to 1/8".  Turn pillowcase inside out.  Make sure corners are poked out and square.  Press along the stitched seam so it is nice an flat. Stitch approx. 1/4" to 3/8" along the seamline, encasing the raw edge.   It should look like this on the inside:

Turn the pillowcase right side out and your done!

Here are my fabulously LOUD pillowcases, made from Michael Miller's Feelin' Groovey fabric available at The Cotton Loft, of course!

Now go and make some WILD pillowcases for your bed, or your teenager's, or your toddler's or anyone's!

Windmill Pinwheel

I'm trying to add more free patterns to our website The Cotton Loft and I just finished up this adorable little baby quilt I call Windmill Pinwheel.



This quilt takes no time to make up and only uses five different fabrics. It's a nice size for a baby or toddler, 40 x 52.

I kept the quilting pretty simple, this is a baby quilt that is meant to be used so I don't see any point in doing any elaborate quilting here. I use Hobbs 80/20 batting so just a bit of diagonal quilting was needed to hold it together and set off the pinwheel blocks. I used a medium blue thread for the quilting but wished I had just gone with the plain white. But I don't think the baby will care what color the thread is, just so the quilt is soft and cuddly.

You can download this pattern for free off our website The Cotton Loft or if you like kits we are offering this blue/green colorway and also a pink/green colorway in slightly different fabrics.

Enjoy!