First Finish & A Tute!

PHEW!!!! Another scorcher here on top of our 'hill'. Even this summer chick is starting to wilt a bit with 40 degree heat... VERY unusual for our hilltop. The only way my Beloved Geek Boy and I have found to keep cool is to open all the  windows an doors, turn the fans on full and sit and watch the cricket whilst drinking lots of icy water and crunching on fruit juice ice-blocks. :0)

 The only problem is ... I really needed to finish off a birthday giftie for one of our nieces to be handed over tomorrow when we catch up with GB's family. That wouldn't normally be a problem ... except, as I shared recently, my sewing room is one of the hottest rooms in the house ... EEK! 

But ... I was brave and trooped off to the sewing room (AKA the Sauna!!) and since I was tackling a quick project, I thought you might like a bit of a tutorial ... plus ... taking photos as I went helped keep my mind off how hot it was. I bet you didn't ever think you'd hear me grumbling about hot HOT it was ... me either! Tee! Hee! Hee!

First step ... collect your requirements. One plain coloured pillowcase, some pretty fabrics and some ribbon. After giving the fabrics a good press, I cut a strip of that pretty stripy fabric 5" wide across the full width of the fabric. (I actually had a fat 1/8th so cut two strips and joined them)

The next step was to fold the strip in half lengthways, right sides together and sew along the length using a 1/4" seam to form a long narrow tube. I turned the tube out, turned both ends in 1/4" and gave it a good press ... making sure the seam was in the CENTRE of the flattened strip

Next, I sewed a gathering row down the centre of my stripy tube and gathered it to fit the short side of my pillow case. (I only decorated the front of my pillowcase, cos you only SEE one side, right?! :0) Make sure you give your pillow case a good press too ... they get a bit squooshed in the packaging process. :0)

Once I'd pinned the gathered strip in place about a half inch from the 'cuff' edge of the pillowcase ... I cut a length of pretty ribbon a half inch longer than the frill. I tucked 1/4" under for each end to neaten and stop fraying and pinned it over the gathering stitching. I top stitched along both edges of the ribbon and along each end, which also attached the frill to the pillowcase AND hid the gathering line. :0)

Next, I cut a strip of a contrasting fabric 3" across the width of the fabric. I folded both short ends under 1/4" and pressed, then folded the whole strip in half lengthways with WRONG sides together, pressed it and stitched a gathering thread along the raw-edge side and gathered it up. I gathered mine fairly closely, but you could spread it out a bit more if you wanted.

After experimenting a little to work out where I wanted to place a feature frilly flower, I drew a circle with chalk pencil and started stitching my frill in place, following the circle until I got back to where I started ... then I spiralled the frill in another 1/4" and kept sewing until I got to the end of the frill.

 You can see that I still had a gap in the middle when I ran out of frill. To avoid this, you could sew your second and subsequent rounds of the frill 1/2" apart instead of 1/4" like I did ... but I had a cunning plan for that centre gap ...

... a sucky puff! :0) (as Bronwyn Hayes refers to them!!) The frilly flower was then finished off with a light pink button to attach the sucky puff and a length of leftover ric-rac for a stem ... and ... VOILA!!

A frilly, girly pillowcase for a teenage niece. And ... all fabrics and trims were from my stash! :0) I know there are a lot of gals promising not to buy any new fabric for six months ... I just know I couldn't do it! :0) I HAVE however, promised myself to look to my stash first when making gifties and projects for myself. A good start to the new sewing year, I think ... and my first finish for 2014! :0)

I hope you've enjoyed my quick tute ... maybe it will come in handy if you've got gifties to make ... or just want to spruce up your own bed. :0) I'm actually thinking I'll make myself a couple of these pretty pillowcases for our guest room ... in a colour other than PINK, of course! Tee! Hee! Hee! Hope you're enjoying the first week of the new year. It's back to work for GB and I on Monday ... GROAN!!! The only plus we've found is that we both work in air conditioned offices! :0) Stay safe whether your weather is scorchingly hot of chillingly cold and I'll be back to visit soon. Til next time ...

STICKY, SWEATY BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS