As I said in a previous posts, one of the ways I decided to stay sane during lockdown was to take up crafting again. This isn't something I've done a lot of over the last few years, just cross stitching some Christmas cards, so I thought that it would be a good challenge to remind myself how to actually do it. One of the little projects I gave myself was to make some additional pillow cases for these extra large pillows my partner has (their the back set in this photo) and for which it's practically impossible to find actual pillow cases for. Just a little side note, I didn't really think about writing about this until I was already working on them so I don't have all the photos that would be useful here - just the ones I took as a little reminder to myself.
I hadn't brought any fabric for this before lockdown happened, but we did have a bottom sheet we were getting rid of and which conveniently matched another bottom sheet we were keeping. There was also no pattern so I had to make up one of my own. After taking the measurements of the pillows I decided to make a pattern which was one long piece that wrapped all the way around the pillow (with an overlap) and two side panels.
The plan was to follow the basic style of the original pillow cases which had an overlap opening located at the centre, back of the pillows.
As the sheet was a fitted sheet the first task was to unpick all the elastic that was around the edge. That took a little while but it does now mean we have quite a bit of good quality elastic for another project. I'm not entirely sure what that project will be, but I'm sure I'll think of something.
I then laid the sheet out on the floor, drew on the pattern I had created and then cut out the pieces with a two inch border to give me some leeway when working with the fabric. To be honest I probably should have ironed the sheet first, but ironing has never really been my thing so why start now.
Then came the fun pinning game, which I've never been able to play without pricking my finger at least twice each time. It was a little more complicated then usual in that I wanted to work the fabric around the corners of the pillows and, as I wanted to do the sewing all in one go, needed to leave the overlapping sections open until I had sewn the seams up.
I haven't used a sewing machine in years, at least 10 in fact, so it was interesting to see if it was like riding a bike. Turns out the muscles still remember what to do and using it definitely speed up the project considerably. The only thing that completely eluded me was how to load the bobbin once I had re-threaded it. Admittedly it was a different machine from what I had used before and thankfully help was at hand.
Firstly I sewed the seams of the overlapping sections, then pinned them into place before sewing around the pattern. I remembered some of the things I'd been taught in the past, like leaving the needle in the fabric when you swizzled the fabric around at the corners, which made the process a lot easier. This machine didn't have a setting to sew the ends closed so I just have to rely on the this single line of stitching being strong enough. I think it should be okay though.
And there you are, there is now an additional blue set of cases for these pillows. We no longer need to try to wash and dry the original set in one day so we can use them again that night. Always good. It wasn't the most complicated thing I've ever done, but I'm still pretty chuffed with the outcome any way.
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