Ready Set Serge Pillowcases Sew and Tell

I've delayed writing this Sew and Tell for as long as could, basically because despite most of the pillowcases made this week turned out great, I haven't been able to look past how badly the ruffles turned out.  But I'll try.  I'll do it for the good pillowcases.  Let's win one for the Gipper!



The regular Pillowcase was very easy and quick.  I've made pillowcases before, but making them on a serger speeds up the process immensely because you don't have to do as much trimming.  You also don't have to do as many steps to hide your seams as you would using a sewing machine, since the serger finishes your seams.

I was so happy with how the Pillowcases turned out, that I finished up a UFO that I've had for over two years.  

UFO's complete!

You could probably make a set of four pillowcases, including prewashing, pressing and cutting, in less than three hours.  These would be great as Christmas presents because you can personalize them for every member of the family.

As for the Stepped-Up Pillowcase, I was happy with how the main body came out.  Also, the rolled edge hem was very easy and looked great.  I'll be using that hem a lot in future projects, especially with garments.

One thing that I learned by doing the patchwork, and a step that I can apply to all my sewing, is to trim stray threads at every step.  I've been able to get away with trimming the threads until the very end, because they've been easy to trim at that point.  But with the patchwork, with so much sewing, and so many steps, if you don't trim the threads right away, you'll end up with lots of them sticking out of your seams.  And they are more difficult to remove if they've been sewn into the seams because you have to cut very, very close to the fabric.

Trim stray threads right away!

Now the ruffles.  I don't know whether I have a defective gathering foot or a defective brain, but the ruffling foot did do what it said it was supposed to do.  When running just one piece of fabric through, the ruffles it made were mediocre.  When running two layers of fabric through, the ruffles were non-existent.  The pattern was of course not to blame for this, but it was still a bummer when I compared my Stepped-Up Pillowcase to the one in the photograph.

If you have a gathering foot that does what it is supposed to do, then this would be a great little project.  You could give a set of pillowcases that included two standard Pillowcases, and two Stepped-Up Pillowcases and it'd make a great birthday gift or even a housewarming gift.  Make sure, though, that your gathering foot works right, or else you'll just end up with a set of embarrassing pillowcases like I did.