Guest Room Part II: Easy 'Recipe' for Pillow Cases!

I call my mom whenever I need a sewing tip, pie crust recipe, or a creative name or funny spur of the moment rhyming song. My mom can make anything. She comes from a line of what is nowadays a dying breed, people who when they needed something, made it instead of bought it. My mom has the ability to see the potential in things. She just saws it in half and paints it and Voila! A Dresser! A Shelf! A Grand Piano!

One day during one such call she gave me this easy 'recipe' for pillow cases! These pillow cases are basic with no frills but they make a nice clean modern look. They are meant to be slept on, but cute enough to be decorative. I like to use 100% cotton.

The basic formula for these pillow cases is...

For the front:

Measure the width of the pillow and add ONE inch, so a pillow that is 20 in wide cut the fabric 21 in wide, this allows for a 1/2 in seam allowance. I let the tape measure go loose and make sure it folds around the sides a bit.

Do the same for the height if the front 17 in high cut fabric 18 in. The front of this pillow case would be 21 x 18.

I am using a neat vintage black and white striped fabric found in my grandma's basement.

For the back:

Use the same height (in this case 18 in )

For the width add 5 in. So the back of you pillow case will measure 26 x 18. Fold this piece in half and cut, you will then end up with two pieces measuring 13 x 18. These are the back pieces to your pillow and will allow you to slip the pillow inside the case and also remove for washing.

Starting with your two back pieces fold over 3x and iron one long edge on each piece.





Then sew each of the two ironed edges



Lay your front piece FACE (pattern) side UP. Lay your two back pieces face Down on the front piece of your pillow. The two sewn edges will be in the middle and they will overlap somewhat.






Now pin all the way around the outside and sew using 1/2 in seam allowance.



When I go over the overlapping portion I like to do a little reverse stitching to reinforce the 'joint'.



Once you have sewn all the way around and tied the treads off, turn your pillow case right side out! You will have an opening to slip the pillow in.



The pillow you saw in the pictures above was the throw pillow for the bed. I also used this 'recipe' for the big pillow cases as well.

Here is the finished product! For the big pillows I used a really neat black and white 'wood grain' print fabric I found in the Joann fabrics quilting section.