Pillowcase: Show Me How
Get the project instructions at AllPeopleQuilt.com/ShowMeHowPillowcase
TRANSCRIPT:
Hi I'm Linda Augsburg, Editorial Content Chief for American Patchwork & Quilting magazine, in this Show me How Video brought to you by baby Lock and the Imagine Serger. I'm going to show you how to make this fun, pieced band pillowcase. Let's get started. This pillowcase is a great extra project after you've finished your quilt because you can use your left over fabric to make the pieced band. What you need for that pieced band is 10 4 ? inch squares of prints, you can also use 5 inch precuts for this, which is a great use of those precut packs. In addition you need a solid that's going to give you contrast, a 6 inch by 40.5 inch piece and a 1 inch by 40.5 inch piece and for the body of the pillowcase you need a 25.75 by 41 inch piece. So the first step is to sew your 10 ? 4 ? inch squares together in a long strip then press those seams open. Then you're going to sew the 1 inch strip and the 6 inch strip to each side of that long band and again press those seams open. Then you're going to bring the two short edges together and sew this seam at a quarter of an inch. So once you get that last seam sewn you'll have a loop and you're just going to fold it in half wrong sides together so you've got this pillowcase band with the raw edges even, give it a good pressing and then we're ready to attach it to the pillowcase. Next you're going to fold the pillowcase body piece in half right sides together and serge one long edge and one short edge and you're not going to want to cut off any fabric as you're going this you're going to want to keep that seam fairly close to that half inch seam allowance. Any time I serge my pillowcase edges I like to just take that last serger thread and make a small knot and I do the same with those corner threads and that way I know that the serger seam is good and secure, And I just trim that off near the knot. So now you've turned the pillowcase right side out and put the band over the cut edge of the pillowcase with the pieced part towards the right side of the pillowcase body and again you've got all three of those seams aligned, and I did put some pins in and I typically don't recommend that you pin and serge but I've got the pins well out of the way of the serger foot and blade and I just wanted to make sure it was all secured together when I've got three layers to serge together, I want to make sure everything stays in place. So those pins are way out here well away from everything and you're just going to serge the pillowcase band again making sure you're not trimming off much of the thread. So you can see I just kind of eased off the edge and again because I want to make sure everything is secure I'm going to tie a knot in those threads. Then once you've got that thread trimmed and unpin the pillowcase you can turn this right side out and if desired you can top stitch that seam allowance down to the front of the pillowcase. I just love using my serger for those finishing seams on a pillowcase then I make sure that it's really going to hold up through all those washings, whether it's at my house, as a gift or whether I'm making the pillowcase to donate for the Million Pillowcase Challenge. So be sure to download the project instructions at AllPeopleQuilt.com/ShowMeHowPillowcase and let's get making some of those pieced band pillowcases.