This post, however, I am dedicating to the wonder that is a pillowcase. You saw in my previous post that you can turn one into a dress/tunic/top. But did you also know that you could turn them into bedding for your favorite little girl's baby doll?
I didn't either, until someone recently asked me to do just that!
The sweet lady who got my job at the university after I quit to have Lilah contacted me recently about sewing up some baby bedding for her one-year-old granddaughter's baby crib. The fabric she had chosen? Real, live pillowcases! It makes sense, right? I mean, it is bedding, afterall! And I think the results were just great!
Out of two pillowcases, I was able to make a pillow, a top sheet and a little "mattress cover" for a piece of foam that fills that role.
And of course, how can you resist a little monogram on the pillow for the custom-made bedding?? You can't. That's how.
I made the pillowcase and mattress cover in the same style as you would a sham: by having overlapping flaps in back so that it would be nice and neat when full but could be easily opened and taken off to wash if necessary. I cut the "top sheet" from the open end of the pillow so it would have that nice finished top edge; the other three raw edges were just hemmed. I then added a little row of the eyelet below the pretty finished edge of the top sheet, et voila! Custom baby bedding for your princess's princess!!
NOTE: Be sure if you're using a piece of foam for your mattress and pillow that you cut your fabric slightly larger than the dimensions of the bed; you'll have to have enough room for them to slide in and over the thickness of the foam. You have a little more wiggle room if you're going to use fiberfill for the stuffing, but you will need to remember that to wash your bedding, you'll have to wash the whole thing, and that can take a while to dry and can get bunchy!!
Keeping with the baby theme, I'm happy to share the next usage of a pillowcase: Semi-Birth Announcement!
With a little embroidery and a cute ruffled eyelet, this pillowcase becomes a gift for mom to take with her to the hospital (or birth center, or to keep at home!) so that everyone knows what's going on in her room!
I first saw this in some hospital photos of a friend when she had her baby 3 years ago. I thought it was such a cute idea and was so SO cute in photos. They had not yet decided on the baby's name, so it just had the "It's a girl!" part, but was still just so fun. I decided I wanted to gift my own version to a friend who is due with her first baby in just a couple of weeks! Imagine a pic of newborn Reilly longways on this pillow!! How cute could that be?
Now I will say that the option without the name has it's own fun; my friend passed the pillow to her sister when she had her daughter earlier this summer, and then used it again when her second daughter was born last week! Such a sweet gift to share with a sister or sister-in-law or any family member or friend to whom you are close!
You could even do them for friends who've decided not to find out the gender, with a sweet message of "Welcome Baby ______" on a neutral-colored pillow!
They aren't in the etsy shop, but if anyone is interested in a pillowcase for a gift or for themselves, please send me an email at withpinandink@gmail.com. I'd be happy to make one up in any color combination I can find!! Price is $18.00 plus $5.00 s&h (or pick-up in the greateer Greenville, SC area; cotton sateen pillowcases available for $25.00 plus s&h.)
So much to do with a pillowcase! Do you have a favorite project that starts with a pillowcase you can share? I'm always looking for new ideas (like I don't have enough to do!)
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