Thursday, January 20, 2011

PILLOW CASES FOR SHEETS


These great little pillow cases are actually storage cases for sheet sets. The beauty of them is you don't have to fold those pesky bottom sheets perfectly to have a beautiful looking linen closet! Make as many as you have sheet sets for - all in the same size. Then fold your sheets to fits the case and stack them with the size facing you. Perfect!!

Use fabrics you already have or order a SassyPack -- our kit comes with enough fabric to make 3 cases (including the dotted fabric and a piece of steam-a-seam for the letters) at an organizational-friendly price!

 Here's what you need to make one:               
   - 16 X 34 piece of white fabric (body)
   - 8 X 34 piece of white fabric (cuff)               
   - 2 X 34 piece of contrasting fabric (band)
   - enough contrasting fabric to cut letters for king, queen, full, or twin
   - piece of steam-a-seam (or other fusible) for letters



For letters, use the free download from our website or make your own by enlarging the letters on your word processor and printing them in outline form.




Trace the letters to the fusible and cut around them loosely, leaving a small bit of extra all the way around. Press the fusible to the wrong side of the letter fabric and then carefully cut them out.
Fold the cuff fabric in half lengthwise, wrong sides together and press. Then fold in half widthwise and center your letters on half of the cuff (allow a little on the side for a seam allowance).






Fuse the letters to the cuff and open flat; stitch around the edges of the letters with a blanket stitch or narrow zigzag.






Fold band in half lengthwise, wrong sides together and press.

Now we put them all together and bury all the raw edges for a beautiful finish. This may sound a little confusing if you just read through it, but lay it out one step at a time and you'll be thrilled with the results!

Lay the cuff out flat on the table, right side up.

Lay the body on top of the cuff, right side down and carefully matching raw edges along the top.


Lay folded band on top of body, matching raw edges (it's a good idea to pin these raw edges as you go).


Fold/roll just the body up toward the raw edge until the cuff is exposed.


Now fold the cuff up over the "roll" and match all the raw edges. Pin all pieces together, but be careful not to catch any of the roll in the pinning.



Stitch the raw edge with a 1/4" seam allowance.
Double-check to make sure you caught all layers in the seam.


Now reach inside and grab hold of the roll and pull it out, turning the whole roll inside out.

Press from both sides, smoothing the cuff out flat.

Pause here and admire your work. . . . .

Now we'll finish with French Seams, so there'll be no unfinished seams at all:



Fold the pillow case in half, wrong sides together. Pin, matching the band seams carefully. (I know it seems like a mistake to have the wrong sides together, but we do it that way first and then turn it and stitch with the right sides together).

So, with the wrong sides together, stitch a very scant 1/4" (or even a generous 1/8") seam just down the length of the pillow case.



Trim any loose threads or little fat seam allowance spots. Press seam open, then turn inside out and working seam with your finger, press seam flat.

Now, with the right sides together, stitch the length of the pillow case with a generous 1/4" - 3/8" seam allowance (you want to hide the raw edges from the first stitching). Turn and press.



Repeat this process to finish the bottom edge.     

note: don't be tempted (like I was) to do both the side and bottom seams at once. It doesn't work!!!

How much do you love these?!! Be sure and send us pictures of yours. Better yet - send us a picture of your perfectly appointed linen closet!

We have a king size sheet set in this case, so it appears much fuller than it will with a twin set. But you can see that any size will fit in these cases. And because we made them shorter than a normal pillow case, you won't have a bunch of extra "empty" case to contend with!

2 comments:

  1. This is a great idea. I will definitely be getting these

    ReplyDelete
  2. I use one of the pillowcases that came with the sheet set to hold the sheet set. That way when when I look into my linen closet I know which actual set I am getting.

    ReplyDelete