New Pillow Cases

I want to challenge you to sew!  I do realize that it is very important to have a sewing machine so I did not make this a "challenge" blog post (although everything should try to sew at some point!).  For a simple craft I made new pillow cases for my throw pillows in the living room.  I used another blog as a guide and skipped a few steps to save time (didn't round the corners, didn't finish the edges, didn't add trim).  Google "how to sew a pillow case" and you'll come up with lots of options.

I chose the pillow case project because my throw pillows are pretty ratty.  They've been around for about four years and many, many rooms and roommates.

To start, I traveled to Fabric Corner in Arlington to peruse their lovely fabrics.  After about 30 minutes of fabric matching I chose some lovely patterns, mostly in green with some blue and turquoise accents (scroll to the bottom for a photo).  Follow the blog's directions for sizing of the fabric pieces and how to cut them.  Basically, you want the front square to be one inch larger in width and length than the size of the pillow.  If your pillow is a 14" square, you should cut one 15" square.  The back will be made up of two half-size pieces that are the same length (i.e. 14") and half the height plus 2.5" (16.5").

Then start sewing!

You'll want the right-sides facing each other (the wrong sides out) and you simply sew a big square around the outside of the fabric.  I tried to keep a quarter inch of space between the stitch and the edge.  I'm not a mastersewer so please excuse my lack of terminology and knowledge!

The finished project was very gratifying and really lightened up the room.  Both of the roomies agree :).