I hope no one’s been waiting too long for this! Thanks to Morgan, I (finally!) created a downloadable PDF for you which shows the chart I used to create my Ruby Strings quilt (or ‘Ruby’s All Strung Out’, as I’ve been referring to it lately…memorable, but maybe not the best blog title!)

Download: Ruby Strings Chart

For this quilt, I used 11″ square blocks – 6 blocks by 7 blocks, which results in a quilt that measures about 63.5″ x 74″– a generous throw. I used Bonnie and Camille’s lovely Ruby fabrics, and by my estimates, you’ll need about 40 fat eighths (I had a 40 FQ bundle, and have about half left over). I’d guess that you’d also need around 4 yards of solid white (or your solid of choice).

These blocks use the same technique as described in my String Block tutorial, so I’m not going to recreate that here for you. Just check over here for the instructions for creating string blocks.

Each block starts with a 1″ strip of white (or your solid of choice) running diagonally through the block. Then you can refer to the PDF chart for the width of the print and solid for each block. (Please note that you will always start with a printed fabric on either side of the diagonal 1″ white strip). Continue adding prints and solids of the called for width until you’ve covered one side of the block.

Unlike the scrappy version of the string quilt, the goal with this quilt design is to get the strips to line up. This can be kind of a challenge, especially with those really narrow strips! Tips? Make sure your 1″ white strip is centered diagonally through the block, be sure to maintain the same seam allowance throughout, and be sure to iron (or finger press) each strip well (and consistently!). That being said, I wouldn’t worry too much if things are a bit off – there are many strings in my quilt which aren’t perfectly aligned, but I don’t think anyone would notice!

I hope you’ll find this chart helpful! I found it useful to cross off each block on the chart as I made them, so I’d know which blocks I still needed to make. If you make a similar quilt, be sure to add it to my Flickr group – I’d love to see it! And as always, feel free to ask any questions here. I’ll answer in the comments!

Ok, finally! Look what I have for you… a quick little tutorial on how to construct the scrappy triangle blocks I used in my Nautical quilt.

A few things before we start… this tutorial will show you my method for making a scrappy triangle block. I’m not providing fabric requirements, or instructions for fully completing this quilt, because well, I just don’t have time! and because I think there are many great tutorials already out there for finishing quilts. If you have questions about the block, leave them in the comments and I’ll answer them there. Feel free to use and share this tutorial, but please remember to give credit!

Block size: 6 1/2″ x 9″.

So, to start, you’ll want to make yourself a template for an isosceles triangle. You could really select any lengths you want, but here I’m going with a triangle that measures 6″ on the short side and 9″ on the two equal sides. (I marked lines on the left side to show the 6″ short side, then marked a vertical line 8.5″ away from the left side and a horizontal line at the halfway point of the short side. Use the point where those lines cross as the point of your triangle.)

Once you have your template cut out, you can start sewing together your scraps. I sewed most of mine together the following way because I think it results in less waste.

I find that 5-6 strips seem to work best for this size of triangle. You could use more if you wanted, but you should make sure that your first and last strips are wide enough so that you don’t lose the fabric in your seam allowance. Lay out your strips, overlapping them a bit to account for the seam allowance, to make a basic triangular shape.

Lay your template on top to make sure the scrap area is large enough.

Sew your strips together using a 1/4″ seam allowance and iron. I iron my seams open, but feel free to use your preferred method! Trim, using your template as a guide.

Cut a piece of your background fabric that measures approximately 6″ x 12″.

Align the long side of the background fabric with one of the long sides of the triangle. You’ll want to align it so that there is about 1.5″ of background fabric on either end of the long side of the triangle.

Sew along that edge and press. It’ll look something like this.

Align the short edge of the triangle with one of the vertical lines on your cutting mat and then make a horizontal cut through your background fabric approximately 1.25″ above the top of the short edge, as shown above (this doesn’t need to be exact, as we’ll be trimming it down later on).

You’ll have something that looks like this.

Take the background piece you just cut off and flip it around like so.

Flip it up so the right sides are together and sew along this long edge, again leaving about 1.5″ of the background fabric on either end of the triangle.

Trim off any excess beyond the seam

Press this seam. You’ll have something that looks like this.

Trim the top and bottom sides so the height measures 6.5″. I aim for about 1/2″ of background fabric above and below the short edge of the scrappy triangle. Trim the sides so the block measures 9″ in length.

And ta da! One scrappy triangle block! Make a whole bunch more, arrange them how you’d like, and sew them together into a lovely quilt top! As always, if you make any, I’d love to see them, so be sure to add them to the FITF Flickr group!

Lately I’ve been quilting most of my quilts, especially the smaller ones, with straight line quilting. I love random straight line quilting, like on this quilt, and I’m also quite fond of diagonal quilting, especially with double or triple quilting lines for a little something extra.

I’ve wanted to try something new though, so I was happy when I thought of this little variation (inspired in part by the quilting on this mini quilt by Kate).

I love how these quilting lines intersect in the middle to form one large diamond, along with several little diamonds along the midpoint.

Want to try out this pattern? Here’s what you’ll need:

• A quilt ready for quilting (probably easier to do this on a smaller quilt!)
• Washable marker (I use Mark B Gone, which I buy at Joann’s)
• Walking foot (not required, but certainly helpful when quilting straight lines)
• Edge guide, if you have one

(click any image to see it larger if you’d like!)

So here’s my pretend quilt. To start, measure along the long sides of your quilt and use a washable marker to mark the centerpoint of each long side (note: make sure you’ve squared up your quilt so the long sides are equal in length – otherwise this design won’t work out so well). Draw a line across the middle of the quilt, connecting the two points.

Starting from one upper corner, draw a diagonal line from the upper corner to the opposite centerpoint marking. Repeat for each corner, and you should end up with marked lines that look like the ones above.

Stitch along one of your marked lines, creating a sideways ‘V’. Now decide how far apart you’d like your quilting lines. If you have an edge guide for your machine, set the guide at your desired distance. (For the manly baby quilt, I used a distance of 1 1/4″, but this is really up to you.) Use the guide to follow your first stitch line, keeping the needle down when you reach the marked horizontal centerpoint line you drew earlier, and pivoting to continue stitching to the opposite corner. Continue until you’ve filled in this section, as shown in the image above.

[Note: if you don't have an edge guide, you could instead decide what distance you'd like between your quilting lines, draw them on with a washable marker and stitch along those lines.]

Repeat for the opposite side of the quilt.

You can see how your lines will intersect along the horizontal centerpoint line to create a row of little diamonds (shown in this photo in the solid gray section).

The final part is to fill in the top and bottom triangular sections that are left without any quilting. I opted to echo the triangular shape, using quilting lines that were the same distance apart as in the middle section of the quilt. On the manly baby quilt I left an empty space of 3″ and then started these quilting lines.

I think this is a fun variation on diagonal quilting, and I hope you do too! If there are any questions, leave them in the comments and I’ll answer there.

I’ve made many strip quilts in the past and I’m often asked for a pattern. I don’t really think that a pattern is necessary – one of the things I really like about strip quilts is how you can change up the look by altering your strips and fabric placement – so this little tutorial is more about my method, rather than precise instructions. But hopefully it will provide a start for those of you who may be interested in making this type of quilt. (I apologize in advance for my excessively wordy post!)

To begin, I typically select a stack of printed fabrics I want to use for my quilt. Then I usually add in several coordinating solids. I find that I typically use about 7-12 printed fabrics, along with 2-6 solids, depending on the size of the strip quilt. I like variety in my strip quilts, and this provides enough fabric to use 1-2 strips of each fabric.

Next you’ll want to cut these fabrics into several strips, cutting selvage to selvage. To start, I usually cut 1 strip of each fabric – 2 of those I’m particularly fond of. I try to vary my strip widths – cutting widths from about 1 1/4″ to about 6″. I usually select a couple of my favorite fabrics to use as feature fabrics, and I cut the wider strips from those fabrics. As you can see in yesterday’s Strawberry Seas strip quilt, I cut wider strips of the mermaid and octopus prints because I wanted those to be a focus. In this quilt, I cut wider strips of the FMF seeds and dotted leaves prints.

[I tend to use narrower width strips of the darkest color, since I don't want it to be what you focus on - in this quilt, I've used smaller strips of the dark brown solid (in yesterday's quilt I used narrow strips of the darkest orange).]

Now you’ll start to lay out the strips to find a layout you like. I usually start with the wider strips, leaving space between each wide strip. Then I fill in with the remaining strips. Once you’ve laid them out, you may find that you need to cut a couple additional strips. I try to vary the placement of the fabrics and the colors, so often there’s a lot of rearranging of the strips until I find a layout I like. At that point I typically take a photo to make sure I still like the layout – it’s often easier to see the layout as a whole in a photo.

I stack the strips in a pile from top to bottom, and then I sew them together in pairs – sewing the first two strips together, setting those aside and then sewing the next two strips together. Repeat until all pairs have been sewn together, keeping your strips in the order you’ve set. You’ll likely find that your strips aren’t exactly the same length, especially if you’ve mixed in several different fabrics, and that’s ok. They’ll be trimmed up in one of the next steps.

Now you’ll want to repeat this process, sewing the first set of pairs to the second set. You’ll now have sections of fabric strips that each contain 4 strips. At this point I iron all the seams in each section. (I wait to iron until this point because I’m not a fan of ironing, and I find this method to be faster, but of course you could certainly iron after sewing the pairs together).

[I sew the strips together in pairs and then sections like this because I find that there's less distortion of the fabrics. It's been my experience that this method keeps the strips straighter and truer.]

Now you’ll trim each of these sections. I find the section with the shortest strip to determine the length you’ll cut each section to. For this particular quilt, I found that my shortest length was about 42.25″.

Cut the selvages off one side, and then cut the other side at your determined length – 42.25″ in this case.

Once all the sections have been trimmed to the same length, pin the first section to the second and sew. Repeat for remaining sections. Then sew each larger section to the next section until they’re all sewn together. Iron these seams and then stand back to admire your quilt top!

Tips:

• Since you’re cutting your strips from selvage to selvage, the maximum width of your quilt will be somewhere around 42″ or so (assuming you’re using 42/44″ width quilting cotton). With a quilt of this width, I like a length of around 55″ or so (but of course this is all personal preference!).

• Smaller is nice too (as in the Flea Market Fancy baby strip quilt I showed the other day). You can trim your strip sections to a shorter length and use the trimmings for a pieced backing.

• When you initially lay out your strips, it can be hard to determine if you have enough strips to make a long enough quilt. Once you have your strip sections sewn into 4-strip sections, I like to lay out all the sections again and measure the quilt length, taking into account the seam allowances. If you find it to be too short, you could add in a strip or two to get to your desired quilt length.

• I like to use a medium/large width strip for the top and bottom. This way if you need to trim up the quilt once it’s all sewn together, you’ll have enough space to be able to trim without ending up too close to the seam.

Any questions? Leave them in the comments and I’ll respond there!

Anyway, here’s a can of the 505 – it comes in two sizes, but I much prefer the larger size. I buy mine locally, though I’m sure you could find it online as well. I like how well it sticks, and I’ve never had a problem with it gunking up my sewing machine. (I’ve only used this brand, so I can’t comment on how other brands of spray adhesive work.)

My only concern with the good old 505 spray is in what you’re breathing in. I’m quite certain that it’s not good for you, since the recommendation on the can is to make sure you use it outdoors or in a well ventilated space. Being that I’m in Vermont, that’s not really possible most of the time, so I wear this heavy duty mask. Cute, right? (of course, since getting pregnant, the job of spray basting has fallen to Morgan, which I don’t mind at all!)

So, to start… I spray my quilts on the floor in our guest bedroom. I don’t particularly care about the carpet, so I lay out the batting directly on the carpet and I don’t worry about any overspray (though I’ve never noticed the surrounding carpet to ever be sticky). If you’re doing this on nice flooring, you may want to first lay out an old sheet. Lay out a piece of batting that’s slightly larger than your quilt top, smoothing out any wrinkles. (doing this directly on the carpet works well for me, since the batting tends to stick to the carpet and remains nice and taut).

Lay out your quilt top on the batting. At this point I trim the batting if it’s significantly larger than the quilt top. I like to leave an extra 1-2 inches of batting all around the quilt top.

• Pull back about half of your quilt top.
• Spray the 505 spray directly on the batting, starting at that midway point (a little goes a long way!). I like to spray a section about a foot in width at a time.
• Smooth your quilt top back over that section of batting that you just sprayed. I start from the middle, working my way out, making sure I’m pulling it taut (but not tight – you don’t want to distort the quilt top).
• Repeat this process until you reach the top of the quilt. Then repeat for the other half of the quilt, pulling back the other half of the quilt top until you reach the sprayed section.

At this point, if you have a backing that’s just one piece, you can go ahead and flip the batting and quilt top over and lay out your backing on the batting. Repeat the spray process to adhere your backing to the batting, completing your quilt sandwich.

However, I often have a pieced backing, and therefore need to make sure it lines up correctly with the front. Morgan came up with this method, and I think it works really well. On the front side, he clips the batting so he knows where the outer edges are located. This way when you flip your batting over, you can easily see where your quilt top is positioned.

Flip the batting and attached quilt top over, and lay out your batting, lining up any pieced sections with your clip marks.

The backing for this particular quilt has a pieced section along the bottom edge, so you can see that he also clipped the batting to show where the seam line was. This is where the pieced section of the backing will line up.

Once again, fold back half the quilt backing and spray in sections, starting in the middle and moving to the top. Repeat for the other half of the quilt. And now you’re ready to quilt your quilt! (I’ve found that this spray adhesive remains sticky for quite a while, so no worries if you don’t immediately get to the quilting stage. The spray adhesive then washes away with your first wash.)

I hope this helps! Feel free to leave any questions in the comments and I’ll reply there.

First, a quick drawing showing the measurements (for those of you who want to skip the rest of the tutorial!) -

This block is a great one for using fat quarters, and I think it works best with non-directional prints, since the blocks end up turned in many different directions when you put together the quilt top. For my Innocent Crush quilt, I used fat quarters of 11 different prints (all the prints from the Charmed palette).

To start, square up the long edge of one of your fat quarters and cut a strip 3.25″ wide. You’ll want to cut this strip along the long side of the fat quarter, which means you’ll have a length of approximately 22″. Cut a strip of solid white (or your solid of choice) that’s 1.5″ wide and the same length as your printed strip (in this case, about 22″).

Sew the white strip to the long side of the printed fabric and iron.

Cut this strip into 7″ pieces. You’ll get 3 pieces from each strip.

Repeat with your other printed fabrics. Additionally, cut a second strip from each printed fabric that’s also 3.25″ wide (3.25″ x 22″). Subcut into 3.25″ squares. While you’re at it, cut additional strips of white fabric 1.5″ wide by 3.25″ in length.

Select two printed squares and sew together with a white strip separating them. Iron seams.

Sew this section to your rectangular section and iron your seam. Your block will measure 7″ square.

Make as many additional blocks as you’d like for your desired quilt size and lay them out to your liking, alternating the block orientation to create your desired design. Add sashing between the blocks and admire your lovely new quilt top! (sashing between my blocks measures 1.5″ in width)

As always, let me know if you have any questions, and if you make a quilt or quilt blocks from this tutorial, please consider adding your photos to the FITF Flickr group!

[And now for a word of warning - this tutorial is more about the process I used when putting together these blocks. It may not be the best way to do it, and you might find something that works better for you, but these are the steps I took. Also, please note ahead of time that this particular method does create some waste, so keep that in mind if you plan on making these blocks with your favorite fabrics!

Oh, and one last thing, I'm sure some of this might be unclear, mainly since I wrote it in a hurry before work this morning -- feel free to ask questions!]

Let’s get started! You’ll need a variety of scraps – for 10″ blocks, you’ll need scraps that are at least 6″ in length and a variety of widths. To start, I pull out about 5 or 6 scraps which would make up half the square and I lay them out and kind of visualize the rectangular shape I’ll be making. I’ve been making 10″ blocks, so each trimmed half square block will measure 5.25″ x 10″.

I start from the left side and grab a piece that’s about 6″ long (since the points line up in the center, you’ll need pieces that extend at least 5.5 – 6″ from where the center point will be.The next piece will need to be slightly longer, since it’s on a diagonal – about  7″ or so, and so on. I lay mine out on my cutting mat so I can check to make sure that the pieces will cover the area I need for the rectangle. When you’re starting out, it might help to cut a piece of paper to the 5.25″ x 10″ size and lay your pieces over the paper so you can be sure they’re large enough to cover that area, keeping your seam allowances in mind (I find that bigger is always better, since you can just trim it down to size later!)

Start with the two pieces on the left, and with right sides together, angle the second piece on top of the first and sew, going from the longest part of the first piece and angling down so you have a wedge shape. I recommend that you sew an angle that doesn’t go directly to the point of the first piece of fabric. You’ll want your points to match up about 1/4″ – 1/2″ or so away from the edge of the fabric so that you’ll be able to trim it to the correct size later. (it may help to read through the rest of the tutorial first so you can see what I mean).

Trim the excess fabric and iron seams open.

Add the next piece of fabric. With right sides together, make sure that this next piece of fabric is about 1/4″ away from the point where the fabrics are coming together. This will ensure that your points meet when you add this next strip, sewing with a 1/4″ seam allowance. Trim excess fabric and press.

As you sew the pieces together, you can check to make sure that your sizes are correct. As you can see in the photo above, you should have about 6″ in length from where the fabrics meet at the point, and you should have about the same distance in height.

Keep in mind that you’ll want to make sure that the point where your fabrics meet isn’t on the very edge of the fabric, but rather about a 1/4″ in from the edge, as you can see above. When you trim it down to size, you’ll need this extra 1/4″ for the seam allowance so you can sew the two halves together. (this might not make sense right now, but it will later when you go to trim it).

Continue sewing the pieces until you’ve pieced enough fabric to cover the necessary area.

Trim the block to size. As you can see from the photo, you’ll position the point in the middle and then will trim 5″ away from the point on each edge. Trim the bottom edge 1/4″ below the point (I position the point where the fabrics meet on an intersecting line on my cutting mat and then using a clear ruler you can easily make sure that you’re trimming 1/4″ below that point). Trim the top edge 5 1/4″ from the bottom edge.

And here you can see two finished blocks – you can see that they’re both trimmed to 5.25″ x 10″, leaving 1/4″ below the point where the fabrics meet at the center).

Sew them together, matching the center points and iron the seam open. Since there’s so much fabric meeting right at the middle, it will be hard to iron and there will be a slight bump right there in the center. I used extra steam and pressed quite hard to make it as flat as possible. Your resulting block will be 10″ square.

Stand back and admire your crazy new starburst block! (and then go make a bunch more for an entire crazy starburst quilt!)

So… remember this quilt? It’s still not finished, but I’ve had a number of requests for a tutorial, so I decided to put a quick one together for you today.

You might recall that I originally made my Flying Farfalle quilt using this technique, which was inspired by an image in Gwen Marston’s Liberated Quiltmaking II book. For my second quilt, I decided to change it up just a little bit, adding in a thin little strip of white to offset the bright colored points from the coal background.

I’m calling it Dinner Date because the coal background reminds me of a men’s suit with the pops of color as a fun tie.

So, to start, collect your materials…

For this quilt, I’m using Kona Coal as the background. I’ve decided to go with 6.5″ squares for this one, but you should feel free to switch it up as you’d like – rectangles, larger squares… whatever works for you! Along with your background fabric, you’ll need fabric for the points – I’m using up some of my colored solid scraps. The size doesn’t really matter, though I think it works best if you use a longer strip that’s at least 2″ wide. If you decide to include the thin white strip, you’ll also need some white fabric. My white fabric is 1″ wide.

Sew the 1″ wide white strip to the long side of your solid strip (1/4″ seams) and press. (I press my seams open, but feel free to do whatever works best for you).

I wanted my white strip to finish at 3/8″, so after sewing the white strip to the colored solid, I trimmed it back to 5/8″.

In order to sew the colored points to your solid background square, flip the colored strip over and position it along one of the corners, as shown in the photo above. (You will end up flipping the colored section back over that gray triangle after sewing your seam, so just make sure that the colored portion will adequately cover the background triangle.) I like my triangle points to be wonky, so I vary the angles when sewing the colored portion to the background fabric.

Sew along the edge of the white strip.

Repeat for the opposite corner, using another of your colored strips. Iron the points and you’ll have something that looks a little like the photo above.

And the back will look a little like this.

Using your background square as a guide, trim off the excess fabric along all sides of the square.

Since your colored fabric has now become the points of the square, you can trim off the excess background fabric that’s under the colored point. Just trim along the edge of the white fabric.

And voila! A finished block! Make several more and you can start to see the fun pattern when you put them together!

As always, let me know if there are any questions, and if you make a quilt like this one, be sure to add it to the FITF Flickr group!

I tend to buy fabrics with smaller prints for use in quilts, yet I’m often still drawn to busier prints, or those with larger designs. Then I buy them and they sit in my stash because I can’t seem to work them into a quilt top. I decided to come up with a quilt design which would allow me to use one of those great fabrics as the backing along with coordinating prints for the quilt top. The measurements are such so that you can use a single piece of regular width fabric for the backing.

If you want to make a similar quilt, here are the measurements and other info -

___

Materials required for a baby quilt, which measures about  38″ x 41″ (after washing):

1.5 yards backing fabric (you’ll need your backing to be about 48″ by the width of fabric, so there will be a bit left over if you buy 1.5 yards)

20 corresponding 8.5″ squares of printed fabrics (a layer cake would work really well here, or 1/4 yard cuts or fat quarters). You’ll need 20 different fabrics if you want each to be unique. Or you can duplicate some of the prints, as I did in this quilt, to reduce the number of printed fabrics you need.

A selection of solid fabrics, totaling just under 1/2 yard. See *notes below for possible variations for the solid sections.

Batting – a piece measuring approximately 44″ x 48″

1/2 yard fabric for binding

Note: 1/4 seam allowances used

___

First you’ll need to pick a backing fabric. For this one, I used a piece of Alexander Henry My Secret Garden that I had in my stash for a long time. I really love it in its entirety, so I thought it would be perfect to use as a backing. From there I pulled out smaller prints in corresponding colors. I used a total of 17 prints, and used three of them twice.

Cut a total of 20 8.5″ squares from these printed fabrics.

You’ll make 4 rows of 5 blocks. I arranged mine on the floor, changing them around until I found a layout I liked.

Sew the 5 blocks together for each row and iron all seams. Each row should measure 8.5″ x 40.5″.

Now that all the blocks are done, you’ll work on the stripes. Each striped section is 4.5″ x 40.5″. For my quilt, I decided to use up some of my solid scraps, so I selected several which coordinated with the printed fabrics. I went for a scrappy, patchwork look, as you can see in the photo below -

For the first and third striped sections, you’ll need a selection of scraps that are 2″ by a variety of widths, and a selection that are 3″ by a variety of widths. The middle striped section is made up of two stripes of 2.5″ wide fabrics by a variety of widths. (You can change this up however you’d like – just make sure your finished width for each striped section equals 4.5″.)

For the first striped section, sew together the 2″ wide pieces, until you have a strip that’s at least 40.5″ long. Repeat with the 3″ wide pieces, again sewing them together until it measures at least 40.5″ long. (I staggered my pieces so that the seams in each strip would be offset from the seams in the second strip). Iron all seams, then sew the strips together, sewing along the long side. The 2″ section is on top. Iron that seam.

Repeat this process for each striped section. Each section should now measure 4.5″ x 40.5″.

(The second striped section is made up of 2 strips of 2.5″ wide fabrics sewn together, and the last section is a 3″ wide strip and a 2″ wide strip sewn together, with the 3″ wide strip at the top.)

*Notes: There are a variety of options for the solid striped sections. If you don’t like the scrappy look, you could opt to use one solid color for each striped section. Or it might be nice to use a few different shades of one color, etc…

Trim each strip to 40.5″ long. Now you’ll sew the first row of blocks to the first striped section. Continue sewing the blocks to the stripes until you have a completed quilt top measuring about 40.5″ x 44.5″. Finish the quilt by sandwiching, quilting and binding using your favorite methods.

I quilted this one with a grid pattern, varying the distance between the quilting lines. I was going for a bit of a ‘not so perfectly straight’ look, so I didn’t mark out any of the lines ahead of time. Inspiration for this quilt came from one of the first quilts I made, the original Blocks and Stripes quilt.

Also, I’d love to see it if you  make a quilt from this tutorial! Please be sure to add photos to the Filminthefridge Quilts! Flickr group.

As I said in the previous post, I based my measurements for Whitney’s pillowcase on a pillowcase that we have here. I don’t really know what a standard pillowcase size is, but these measurements result in a pillowcase that measures about 20″ x 29″. If you have a larger pillow, you may need to adjust your measurements accordingly. What’s nice about pillowcases is that the measurements don’t have to be so exact – there’s a pretty good chance that even if you’re shy an inch or so of fabric, you’ll still be able to stuff your pillow in its new case!

Materials:

1 yard of fabric per pillow (Note: if you want the cuff of the pillow to be a different fabric, you can reduce the main fabric to 3/4 of a yard, and add in 1/4 yard of a coordinating fabric for the cuff)

1.5″ x width of fabric for the trim (or, alternatively, you could use other trim here – I used rick rack for these pillowcases).

Note: For these pillowcases I used Anna Maria Horner flannels, which are a standard 42/44″ width. All fabrics have been prewashed.

2nd note: This works best with a non-directional print, due to the way it’s sewn together.

Let’s make a pillowcase!

Cut your fabric pieces. For each pillowcase you’ll need to cut one piece that’s 9″ by the width of fabric (this is for the cuff), and one piece that’s 26″ by the width of fabric (main body of the pillowcase). Leave the selvedges on the fabric. This will give you an extra bit of width, and they’ll be hidden when we finish the pillowcase with french seams later on. Cut the fabric you’re using for trim to 1.5″ by width of fabric.

Prepare your trim by folding it in half lengthwise, wrong sides together, and press.

Next we’ll sew the trim and cuff to the main body. To do this, stack these three fabrics together in this order — on the bottom, open up the 9″ cuff piece and place it face up. Next, align the long edge of the 26″ main body piece on top of the cuff piece, also face up, matching the selvedges. On top of this, align the raw edge of the trim and pin all three layers together. You might be able to see this better in the photo below:

Sew the entire length, sewing all three layers together using a 1/4″ seam allowance.

Now if you lift up the fabric for the cuff you’ll have a little something that looks like this -

Press the seam up, towards the cuff fabric. Then iron the top edge of the cuff under 1/4″.

Next, we’ll make the actual cuff by folding down the ironed edge to meet the trim. Leave about 1/4″ of the trim showing. Pin in place and iron the cuff edge.

Top stitch along this edge using a scant 1/4″ seam allowance, covering the stitch line you made when sewing on the trim.

It should be looking a bit more like a pillowcase now, and we’ll finish it up by sewing together the body of the pillowcase. As I mentioned in the beginning, I use french seams so there aren’t any exposed raw edges.

In order to do this, you’ll fold the pillowcase in half, wrong sides together, aligning the edges. Pin along both edges, making sure that the cuff edges match.

Sew along the two edges, using a 1/4″ seam allowance. Trim your corners, then flip inside out. Press both seams so you have a nice straight edge.

Sew these two edges again, this time using a 3/8″ seam allowance. This will enclose the raw edges inside the new seam.

Flip right side out and admire your pretty new pillowcase!