a plethora of pillowcases

Last weekend, Vada was invited to a birthday party, and I wanted to make a gift for her to take. I've had personalized pillowcases on my list of projects to try for a long time, so I figured this was the perfect opportunity! Remember this fabric? Check out what a cute girly pillowcase it made! I tried out some of that nylon embroidery thread for the zigzag around the letters, and it worked quite nicely. It maybe wasn't the best color, but I gave away all but two spools of it, so I didn't have much to choose from!



While I was cutting this one out, I had the Million Pillowcase Challenge on my mind. I have SO MUCH novelty print fabric, and I'll never be able to turn it all into charity quilts. Pillowcases would be so quick and easy! On top of that, it's the perfect project to take over to Ahava's place for our Friday sewing afternoons. I did a quick pull of coordinating fabrics, and started cutting away.



I used this tutorial (a PDF file), which is amazingly easy. It takes 3/4 yard of the main print, 1/4 yard of the contrast print, and one 2.5" strip for the band.

After Emma's, I made 10 more... Huzzah! That's 11 yards of loot used!!



When I made Emma's, I used French seams. But my finicky sewing machine really hates the bulk, and it drove me crazy with skipped stitches. So, I figured it was time to dust off the old serger. The last time I used it, I was doing rolled hems for napkins. I was not looking forward to having to read the manual to figure out how to reconfigure and rethread it for the normal mode. But I managed to do it with only a minimum of cursing. I'm happy it's done - I had forgotten how much fun it was to sew with! It feels so.... industrial!

And to prove just how anal I am sometimes... I really hate that you can see the serged edge of the seam at the opening of the case, and I wanted to find a way to make that look neater. So I tucked in the corners on both sides at the end of the seam, and then did the serging. It's a tiny thing, but it doesn't take much more effort, and I like that it helps to hide that ugly seam end.



When I started on these, I had no idea where I would donate them. But in an amazing bit of serendipity, I got Anna Lena's newsletter yesterday, in which Karen was asking for pillowcases for Camp Victory, which serves girls from ages 5-18 who have suffered sexual abuse. I can't think of a more worthy cause. I shipped them off this morning, and I'm excited to get started on my next batch. The Million Pillowcase Challenge lasts all year, and they're only up to 29,200 right now. Won't you join me and make a few?