A Tale of Two Pillowcases

My youngest, who will be two in August (two!) is a serious cuddler. He loves to throw himself full-force into a pillow and pretend to snore. My oldest (turned three in August) has been using a pillow that my grandmother made for me when I was a little girl. The pillowcases that are still laying around for it are very girly and frilly. We've been using a standard size pillowcase for it with the extra length just folded up. I decided that for Christmas this year, I would make my boys pillowcases and find a nice pillow for the youngest.

I picked up some flannel cotton at my favorite local fabric store (now Colorado Fabrics), and got to work. I used 1/2 yard for each pillowcase. First, I folded down the selvedge ends to create a 2" cuff. Then, I folded the cuffs to match and closed the cut sides with French seams. Quick and oh-so satisfying.

The first went pretty well, but I only squared the fabric on one side and ended up with a little bit of an uneven seam on the other side.

For the next, I squared both cut ends of the fabric right away and ended up with not enough fabric to cover the pillow. After a second trip to the fabric store, I proceeded the same way I did with the, first, thinking that with the pattern I had chosen any minor differences would be hardly noticeable. The pillowcase is not nearly as lopsided as it looks in this picture.

I am incredibly pleased with the results and my boys are super happy with their new pillow and pillowcase. It's so satisfying to work on small projects that I can complete in a relatively short period of time.