Pillow Talk - Simple Pillowcase with French Seams Tutorial

You may be asking yourself who needs a pile of pillows like that? I'll tell you...Later. For now I'll show you how I've been making the pillowcases for these pillows. They've even got french seams! Spiffy, I know.

You'll need:

• A yard of fabric
• Thread
• Sewing Machine
• A ruler
• An iron

Lay out your fabric folded in half with right side out and the selvages lined up. Since they aren't very noticeable on this fabric, I didn't cut them off. If they are noticeable or you just don't want them, feel free to cut them off. Once you get the edges aligned and smoothed you can pin the two sides together, making sure the right sides are out. Yes, it will feel weird to put in a seam that's visible on your pretty fabric, but trust me. It will be ok. Since I was working with flannel for this pillowcase and it kind of grips itself I didn't pin the edges. Instead I just stopped every so often to make sure I was still lined up right.

 Once you're lined up and pinned up (if you so choose) sew a 2/8" seam along the short side that will be the bottom of your pillowcase and then you can just pivot straight onto the long side when you get there. Sew it all up, clip the corners to cut down on bulk, and turn the pillowcase inside out. Now the wrong sides will be showing.

 Pull the seams taught and iron lightly so they will hold their shape in the next step.

 Now that the seams are nice and flat and crisp, sew another seam at 3/8" around both sides. I tend to be a little more generous on this measurement just so I know I'm not going to catch the raw edges in the seam.

 Once you get your seams sewn, you can figure out how big to make the cuff at the end where the pillow goes in the case. You can use another pillowcase you have to get an idea, or just fit it onto the pillow to get an idea of how much you need. In this case I'm using the first pillowcase I made for my bigger project as a guide. When I made that one, I put the pillow inside the case and folded down the raw edge until I liked the length of the case. I measured the fold and pinned it in place.

 That measurement came out to be 6" for me. You can leave more or less depending on how you want your case to look. Pretty much all of my fabric ended up having exactly 6" left over when I used the first pillowcase as a template. One was longer, so I just cut off the excess.

 I usually start any kind of hem at a seam so I turned down the 6" cuff and pinned it at the top.

 Once you have the seam pinned, find the point opposite and fold down the 6" cuff. Pin in place. Have the pillowcase laying flat and as soon as you pin the point exactly opposite to the seam,  measure the cuff at three places on the top side and pin them in place. I always work from the center out so I measured the cuff at approximately the center and pinned. Then I measured the cuff to the left of the center and pinned. Same with the right. Flip the case over and repeat on the back side. It might seem tedious, but it's important to measure at each place you're going to pin to make sure everything is still even.

 Lightly press between the pins to give a little crease that will be helpful in the next step. Be sure not to iron the heads of the pins if you have plastic ones like me!

 I ultimately wanted my cuff to be 3" so starting back at the seam I turned the raw edge under until the cuff measured 3". This is where out crease comes in handy. It not only marks where the original fold was so you're sure to stay even, but it also gives a reference for the tuck since we're folding the cuff in half. The raw edge of the cuff can be smoothed right into the crease. Repeat this. following the same pattern as when you turned the cuff down initially. Pin the seam, then the point opposite, then three pins on each side. I just reused the same pins from the initial fold, but pinned them at the bottom of the fold so it was sure to hold well. Remember to measure each time you pin!

 Sew the cuff in place. I used the 2/8" measurement on the left side of my presser foot instead of trying to measure to the right.

 Turn the pillowcase right side out, and there you have it! A pretty pillowcase in any fabric you choose and guaranteed not to shed little threads from the raw edges of the seams since we encased them in french seams!

Check back next week for the full project I used these cases for!