Tutorial: The World’s Easiest Pillowcase

 

The world’s easiest pillowcase is an ideal gift because it looks a million dollars and it is really a piece of cake.

It is an envelope pillowcase which means that you do not need any buttons or ribbons to close it (which always feel uncomfortable on a pillow to me anyway). Nevertheless it is still a pillowcase which you can take off the pillow easily and throw it into the washing machine (very important with a little one with chocolate hands ;-))

It is so easy that I could draw the how to on a single page and I promise I haven’t left out a single step...

 

... except turning the pillowcase inside out in the end and stuffing a pillow in it. But I guess you would have figured that out yourself, wouldn’t you?

Don’t worry about the lengths and the width not including any seam allowance. It is a trick and not a mistake, because if the pillowcase is a tiny bit smaller than the pillow itself, the pillow will look wonderfully plush.

From my point of view a thicker cotton fabric works best, because it stays in place but is also pleasant on the skin. Stretchy fabrics are a bit tricky, but work as well. Really you cannot do wrong with this pillowcase.

Depending on the design you chose the pillow can look very feminine or very masculine, very subtle or screaming, very soft or a bit rustic.

Since I needed a Christmas present for my uncle who is the proud owner of a little forest in Bavaria, I opted for a masculine, wooden look with a soft interior...

that is the back - you can hardly see the opening in the middle, can you?

Doesn’t that wood effect look cool? I found this fabric at Ikea and immediately I knew it was the perfect fabric for this project.

Weihnachtskleid sew along – Panik

I am calm. I am happy. No tears. No panic whatsoever.

BUT

Oh dear, there was panic along the way of sewing my dress for Cat’s Christmas dress sew-along.

First of all I have to admit that I am a pragmatic sewer. Well, actually I think that I am a pragmatic person anyway. Therefore I knew I would only have time and passion to make one dress – alas no ‘Probekleid’, it was the real thing from the start. PANIC!

Plus I am not a very experienced sewer. Little things here and there, sure. But a Christmas dress is a different pair of shoes. So PANIC again!

So those were my general points of PANIC, but of course there were also some others which jwere created during the process.

PANIC No 1:I was so clever to choose a wonderful fabric with a very distinct pattern and only 20cm more than the amount of fabric recommended on the pattern. And somehow I thought that “allow extra fabric to match plaids or stripes” wouldn’t apply to me, because my fabric is neither striped nor plaided ;-(  So cutting the pieces were more than a little challenge, but somehow miraculously after lots of shuffling around I was able to cut all necessary pieces from my fabric with virtually no leftovers – puh!

PANIC No 2:Despite all the shuffling around of the pieces on my fabric and despite a lot of hard thinking on my behalf, there was more panic related to the distinctive pattern of my fabric. First of all: how would the darts look? Answer: surprisingly good except the one I show you above, but that is the one which is almost completely hidden by the wrap. Lucky me ;-)

Panic No 3:You surely guessed it – there is more trouble attached to a distinctive pattern. Note to myself: just buy plain-coloured fabrics in future! The skirt's side seams. There was simply no way to adjust them, especially with my mere 20cm extra fabric ;-( Therefore I decided to focus on aligning the front and just ignore the side seams. Pragmatic approach, but to be honest you don’t see the mismatch if you wear them because of the extreme width of the skirt and the flowing nature of the fabric. Okay, then keep on going, no major disaster, yet. No reason to throw the dress into a dark corner and forget about it.

  

PANIC No 4:

Ehhhmmm, such a disaster happened about 2 hours later. When I wore the dress for the first time in front of the mirror to be precise. Pure PANIC because there was no way that I could comfortably close the wrap. There just wasn’t enough fabric. Or too much boobs (which I doubt). Anyway, my pragmatic me decided just to extend the fabric in front my adding the contrasting front band the instead of sewing it on top of the wrap part. Thank goodness I had planned for a contrasting band like in view A anyway. And hurray, it worked beautifully.

Panic No 5: Compared to the other PANIC moments, this one is almost not worth mentioning. At a new round in front of the mirror I discovered that there was a big hole in the front of my dress. Close to the newly attached sleeve, which I was so proud of to have mastered. To cut a long story short, I had to detach the sleeve again, open the seam, close it properly (with a lot of backstitching!!!), attach the sleeve again. And voila, a mere hour later or so the hole was history ;-)

Oh girls, I hope you have had less PANIC moments in the course of your Christmas dress sewing (or at least solved the big and little problems by now) and I cannot wait to see your dresses on Friday!!!

Weihnachtskleid sew along – Sewing

Cat, I couldn’t agree more with you. Without the pressure of the creative challenge Christmas dress sew-along I would never finish my dress. But so the deadlines hang right next to my desk and ‘remind’ me that I really have to get to work with this beautiful dress. So here is the update on my Christmas dress:

I am not finished (hoho, not even close).

I am not nearly as far as you, Cat (Probekleid? Auftrennen? Einsetzen? Kragen? Oh, not yet sir)

BUT

I have finished all the annoying bits last night: buying all supplies, cutting, bordering all raw edges and so on. Which is a big thing, because once these things are done, I am enthusiastic about sewing and manage to finish the dress in a couple of hours. Or days?

When I read on the pattern it was easy, I thought: okay just a couple of hours.

Then I read through the instructions and counted the necessary steps (57!!!) and thought: oh no, days!

Then I counted the number of pieces, which need to be sewn together (8), and thought: hours!

Then I thought about the lining, which I need because the dress is mainly off-white and thought: days ;-(

Oh, well there is no point in further trying to do the maths. I just have to start. So without further blahblah and just a quick look over to your dresses, I am off to my sewing machine.  Keep your fingers crossed that I have something to show you next week ;-)