Roll it up Pillowcase

Pillow cases are the easiest beginner level projects among others.  During my initial days of sewing, I couldn't get a simple table napkin right.  I wanted to quit the classes very badly because I had no control over the speed of the machine, I had to constantly follow the presser foot to have the seam allowance correct and also to hold the cloth correctly and take out the pins before the needle would come to that point.  These are just a few of the nightmares.  I still have a long list.  I would constantly be scared that I might sew my finger with the cloth.

But then the patient teacher and her constant encouragement helped me to achieve more than I had hoped for.  Now I am able to understand and sew some advanced tutorials available on the internet.  Last week I had sewn a full salwar kameez and I had a lot of cloth leftover from the kameez.  So I wanted to sew a nice Pillowcase for my pillows.

We use the natural cotton stuffed pillows here in South India.  First it is very skin friendly, absorbs lot of sweat and is actually believed to reduce the body heat in a very hot, humid and tropical temperatures like Chennai.  So we mostly avoid the synthetic stuffed pillows and go for the "Illavam panju".  Though it is costly, it is good stuff.  Since it is custom made, the size also varies largely.  There is no standard size to it.  So measure your pillows before starting with the project.

I followed the tutorial by Crafty Gemini in youtube and got very good results.

Measurements of the pillow:

• Length = 23"
• Width = 16"

Measurements of the cloth:

• Length = 21" + 9" (for the sleeve, blue colour)
• Width = 18"

Approximate finished pillow case size = 16.5" * 24.5"

Here are the pics of the pillow case

This whole project was done using scrap fabric.  I will take the step by step pictures when I sew my next pillowcase.  But the procedure is the same except I had to join pieces of fabrics to make the whole width and length of the pillowcase.