The Lazy Organizer

This is the tutorial I promised for the pillowcases I made for Christmas this year.  They were fun to make but I do think this project is for an advanced sewer/quilter.  If you are good with gathers, piping, machine quilting and what not and so forth then you are good to go.

I still need to add the fabric amounts which I will do and if I have left anything else off or if you have any questions leave me a comment and I’ll respond as quickly as possible.  Enjoy!!

I will apologize right now for the quality of the photos.  I was taking them in my sewing room that doesn’t have the best lighting for photography.

• Preshrink: I soaked the printed fabrics in cold water for an hour (soak different colors separately so they don’t bleed) and dried in a hot dryer.  I washed and dried the flannel and muslin.
• Press all of it of course.  Pressing is the second most important thing you can do when you sew.
• The first is to sew a straight line.  That’s very important.
• All seams are 1/4″.

Are you ready? This is what you are making first.

• Cut the stripe fabric 40 1/2″ across and 26″ long.
• Cut the green accent fabric 2 1/2″ X 40 1/2″.
• Cut the pink border fabric 4 1/2″ X 40 1/2″.

• Fold the accent fabric in half lengthwise and press.  Sorry I didn’t have a photo of the pink pillowcase for this step.
• Sandwich it between the other two fabrics and stitch as above.
• Press the accent fabric toward the border and the seam toward the main fabric.
• Cut a piece of 100% cotton flannel 1″ bigger all the way around than your pillowcase.
• Do the same with a piece of lining.  I used 100% cotton, unbleached muslin.  When you buy it make sure it’s the same width as your other fabrics, at least 43″ wide.
• I glue all three layers together with spray adhesive.

• Quilt the pillow case how ever you would like.  I do not have directions for this because it is very involved.  Here is one tutorial I found on line.  Machine Quilting Tutorial
• You can also make this without quilting it.  Just put a piece of muslin on the back and proceed.
• When you are finished quilting, trim the excess muslin and flannel off your pillow case, cutting it 40 1/2″ X 26 1/2″.
• I like to cut it to size after it is quilted because quilting it can make it a little smaller than you want.
• Sew the side seam of the pillowcase and serge or finish the seam however you like.

Next you will cut your ruffle fabric.

• Cut two pieces 7″ long and all the way across your fabric.
• Cut off the salvage ends and stitch them together on both sides so you have one continuous circle.
• Fold this in half lengthwise and press.
• Sew your gather stitches.  I had a hard time finding a good tutorial on this so if you know of one let me know and I will post it.
• I never break threads when I gather because I use a heavy thread and I stop and start at each seam.

• Once it is gathered, sew the ruffle onto your pillowcase.
• Live up one of the ruffle seams with the side seam of the pillowcase.

• Cut four ties 2 1/2″ X 19″.
• Sew across one side and bottom of each.
• Turn and press.
• Pin ties 6 1/2″ in from the sides.

• Cut facing fabric 4 1/4″ X 40 1/2″.
• Sew short ends right side together so you have one continuous circle. Fold in half and press wrong side together.
• Line seam up with side seam of pillowcase and stitch it on.
• Sew on the muslin side (inside of the pillowcase) so you can follow your previous stitching line.

• Serge or finish the seam.

• Remove the extra gather stitch.

• Fold seam toward facing with your pillowcase and ties out of the way and top stitch 1/16″ away from the seam.

• Fold and press facing inside pillowcase and tack down in several places to hold it there.  If you want to spend more time you could slip stitch it all the way around but I was too lazy to do this since no one is ever going to see it.

All done!  Now wasn’t that fun?

Are you ready to make the sham?

• Cut the center green fabric 22″ X 14″.
• Cut two 3 1/2″ X 14″ pieces of the blue border fabric.
• Sew them onto the short ends of the green fabric.
• Press the seam toward the border.
• Cut two 3 1/2″ X 28″ pieces of the blue border fabric.
• Sew them onto the two long sides of the green fabric.  Press.

• Prepare your fabric to quilt as you did with the last one and go for it.

I did a fancier design with this one. If you are a beginner to machine quilting, straight lines are the way to go. I am not a beginner and I still have a difficult time getting it to look nice. You could always take it to a professional quilter too. Lauri is my quilter of choice if I want my quilts to look fabulous.

• Make a continuous binding, cut on the bias (it has to be on the bias because it’s going around corners), long enough to fit all the way around the sham plus some.
• I cut mine 1 1/4″ wide but it really depends how big your cording is.  It needs to be wide enough to fit around your cording plus another 1/2″ for both sides of the 1/4″ seam allowance.

• Fold the cord into the binding and stitch the seam down with a zipper foot.

• Stitch piping onto sham front.

• Clip the piping seam allowance as you go around the corners.
• Don’t worry about covering your previous stitching line because you will sew closer to the cording later.

• This part is tricky and I’m sorry the photo is so bad.
• To join the piping you cut the cording so it meets end to end.  Cut one side of the fabric the same lenth as the cording and the other side about 3/4″ longer.
• Fold that longer side over at least 1/4″.

• Now overlap it with the other end of the piping.  Pin and finish sewing the piping onto the sham.

Cut out the ruffle.

• Cut strips of the striped fabric 4 1/2″ by the width of your fabric.
• Cut off the salvage edge.
• Sew them end to end into a continuous loop.  Press seams and then press in half wrong side together.
• Gather as above and pin onto the sham front.

• Stitch.  Again, not worrying about your stitching lines showing on the piping on the right side.

Ok, now you just need to make the back and it is very simple but I didn’t get photos for this part for some reason.  It’s going to look like this.

• Cut four pieces of the blue fabric 1 1/5″ wide and about 11 inches long for the ties.
• Press them in half lengthwise and then fold each side into the middle fold and stitch on the edge. After you stitch them tie a knot in the ends. Does that make sense? However you do it ,just make four ties!
• Cut two pieces of the pink fabric 14 1/4″ wide by 20 inches long.
• Cut two of the same thing out of muslin.
• Cut one piece of the pink print 4″ X 20″.
• Cut a piece of the muslin 20″ X 18″.

Now you’re going to make the right side as it is shown in the photo above.

Now you’re ready to make the left side.

• Place two of the blue ties 6 1/2″ from the outside edges of the long side of the other piece of the pink print and pin.
• This time put the 4″ X 20″ piece of pink print on top right sides together and stitch.
• Press the seam to the larger side.
• Place the piece of muslin on top of this right sides together and stitch along the side closest to the ties.
• Turn and press.

It’s time to sew the back onto the front of the sham.  You’re almost done!

• Pin the back pieces to the front of the sham, right sides together with the large back piece overlapping on top of the smaller one.
• Stitch all around getting as close to the cording as you can. This is where you make sure all your stitching lines are hidden.
• I went all the way around once and then stitched around again even closer.
• Turn and you are all done!!!

Stuff your pillowcases and get ready for some sweet dreams.

Hopefully these are girlie enough that your husband won’t fight you for them.  Make them pink and he really won’t.  Maybe.

Pillowcase Tutorial – Click here to download this tutorial as a Word document