Smith & Daphne: His and Hers Pillowcases

A while back, I decided to make a "his and hers" set of pillowcases. I saw a floral flannel that I liked, but didn't think hubby would be too fond of the coral-y pink and the flowers. So I bought him a circle print.

Now that it finally feels like fall, I really wanted to get these pillowcases finished. I bought the two main fabrics a while back, but it was on a whim and I didn't really know how much I needed. Once I washed it up, I saw that I needed just a little more to get them the right size. I decided to make the cuffs match each other to bring the two cases together a little bit. There was a big sale at Joann this weekend, and since I was there anyways I bought the last little bit I needed. This was a pretty quick project, and I did hardly any measuring and only a little cutting. The construction is simple, too.

I used 3/4 yd of the "main" fabric on each one, plus 1/4 yd of the contrasting cuff (so 1/2 yd total of contrast for 2 pillows [or] 1 yd total per pillowcase). I washed it all first, then trimmed it up to make everything straight and make the two main fabric pieces the same size. I just cut the contrasting fabric in half (lengthwise - to get 2 long strips). I don't know what size I ended up with, but pillowcases are pretty forgiving so let's not worry about that.

I decided to use French seams to keep everything nice and enclosed. I also hadn't used French seams before and wanted to see how it went. I started by lining up one cuffed piece (folded in half, wrong sides together) with one body piece - keep wrong sides together first, and line up the raw edges. Sew along that edge (3/8" allowance?), then flip them around so right sides are together, like usual. Sew along there with a slightly bigger allowance (or trim the 1st one down and sew with the same allowance, but I didn't want to mess with trimming, etc). It helps to press the seam open after the 1st step, then press it again when you flip it so that 2nd seam is smoother.

You'll end up with a nicely enclosed seam. That's the finished seam between cuff and body below. (I didn't take pics of the other pillowcase because I sewed it right sides together to start and didn't want to rip the seam out. So it has one "regular" seam, haha).

I did the bottom seam next, exactly the same way (make sure it's all lined up, sew with wrong sides together, then right sides together). Then I trimmed everything before I sewed the side seam, because I must sew crooked and my sides weren't lining up nicely. :)

See how you have an ugly outside seam for a while? That's what you want for the first step. I am always messing up on right sides together/wrong sides together/make sure things match/etc etc. I had to keep reminding myself to do it this way, which is why the first seam on "his" pillowcase isn't a French seam.