On the Case

My friend Susie pointed me to this amazing 3-Seam Tube Pillowcase Pattern. The construction is totally genius, and I'm not going to try to describe it here because the pattern itself does a wonderful job of telling you how to do it. The finished pillowcase uses only 3 seams, and has no raw edges showing, inside or out (I French Seamed the outside seam- which was 1 of the 3 seams).  The pillowcase fits any standard pillow, though the pattern could be easily adapted for larger ones. The website has many other pillowcase patterns, and a wonderful charity pillowcase drive that might interest you. I think I'll donate one or two.

I have a considerable fabric stash, but much of that fabric is in pieces or strips or fat quarters. This pattern needs 27" x 42", and 11" x 42" pieces, so for several of my pillowcases, I ended up piecing the sections, which was fun too.

I had to put quilting and sewing (and everything else recreational) away last fall when work on the Fair Isle book began in earnest. I had some blocks put together for Ladybug Girl, but her quilt wasn't assembled (she got a different quilt for Christmas). So for her pillowcase, I used some of the ladybug blocks. Since I didn't want lots of raw edges on the inside of the case, I lined the body and then constructed the pillowcase according to the instructions afterwards. It's heavier than a standard pillowcase, but totally functional.

I had some of the fabrics left over from Frog Girl's quilt, so I used precut 4" squares for the Prairie Points. I had fat quarter of a different froggie fabric, which I pieced with some other leftover quilt fabrics for the band.

Superhero Boy's pillowcase got a pieced Batman band. Construction note- the pattern says to use fusible interfacing on the band. I did with the Batman pillowcase, but did not like the resulting stiff band. So I omitted that step on the other cases.

Voracious Reader got some wonderful Mary Englebreit *reading girl* fabric, banded with an Aloha fabric (she has Hawaii roots, so not only do the colors look good together, it's doubly relevant).

I haven't made Bee Girl's case yet, mostly because I don't have any bee fabric on hand. I'm going to think on hers. I may try to make patchwork bees for the band... we'll see...