We went to a cafe for treats, then the store to pick out fabric. They chose flannel bears with coordinating cuffs and cream satin bias for the trim. The pink snowpeople is for my daughter, it was the instructional sample.
We used the burrito method and french seams. They did such a wonderful job. It is an absolute joy sharing this life-skill with others. I really like it when people ask me to help them learn how to sew, what fun!
Oh, how lovely! They look great and this “simple” project can teach so much about the basics (+ French seams!) in a relatively short time, yielding a useable product! NOICE!
They learned about directional prints too!
The pink snowpeople is a 1 way horizontal print that I cut out in the recommended size from a 45" width bolt, so it ended up with the print being sideways.
The blue bears with fish are a horizontal 2 way print, but that was a 60" width bolt, so it could have only 1 seam instead of 2 separate front and back pieces and the design would look right from either side, in either orientation.
The pink bears is horizontal 1 way from a 60" width bolt and it needed a separate front and back so both sides face up and down the same way. We bought more of that and ended up with a lot left over so she will be getting an extra pyjama bag and I’ll have to find something else to do with the rest.
I felt like one of the most interesting lessons for the kids was that directional prints are more expensive and time consuming to use. That’s not something they thought about at all and they were pretty surprised at all the variables. I just had a great time figuring things out, all the seam allowances and such. Not bad for a 3 hour session.
OH! And they used flannel and I used cotton for the sample so they learned about different fabrics and how to sew them as well.
I noticed this in the photo! It’s something that is left off most of or all of the online instructions for pillowcases from what I have seen. And makes a huge difference in the result if you don’t know as well as the cost. I feel like there are fewer and fewer non-directional or scatter prints available, too.
Congratulations! Your awesome Pillowcase Teaching session, is a Featured Project this week!