Sewing 101 and a Christmas Idea

I have come to find out that many of you are young mom's, either wanting to learn how to sew, or just barely beginning. I think that is so great! So, in honor of you, I am posting a tutorial for the easiest thing in the world that you can sew..... a pillowcase.

And.....stay tuned at the end of the tutorial for a fun Christmas idea you can use this pillow case for. So, let's get started.....

Most store bought regular size pillow cases measure about 24" x 19".

You will need:

• 1 rectangle, for your main fabric, measuring 20" x 38".
• 1 rectangle of fabric (red in my case) measuring 38" x 8"
• 1 rectangle of fabric (green in my case) measuring 38" x 1.5"
  

Next you will lay the red and the green strips out and fold them in half (wrong sides together) so that they now measure 38" x 4" (red) and 38" x 3/4" (green). Iron them with a nice crisp crease.

Pin the two together as shown with the folded edge facing up, the raw edges together. If you would like you could baste them very close to the edge or....

...Skip that part and lay them on top of the 38" side of your big rectangle (right sides together) and sew all three pieces together about 1/4" from the edge, as shown below.

When you are finished it will look like this. Give it another once over with the iron, this will make it lay nice and flat once it's finished. You should now have one big 38" x 24" rectangle
.

Fold that in half with right sides together. Sew along the bottom and the long side, obviously leaving the red side open for the pillow. There you have it. The easiest thing to sew!

HERE'S YOUR CHRISTMAS IDEA.......

Every year I come up with some sort of fun "gimmick" (that's what the kids call it) that will get them excited about serving each other. After all that's what Christmas is about and if you can't be nice to the people in your own home then what's the point of being nice to anybody else. That seems kind of hypocritical to me.

So, tonight for family night, I introduced the kids to the "gotcha pillow" (oh yeah, there was eye rolling!!! but also smiling and laughing, so we're all good). Here's how the "gotcha pillow" works. I will start it tomorrow by doing some sort of kind deed for someone in the family. When I'm done I will slip the pillow case on their bed pillow (kind of like saying "gotcha!"). It will then be their turn to do a kind deed for someone else and give them the pillow case.

My prediction is this .... they will humor me for about 2 weeks, then we will slowly forget about it. We'll find the pillow case next season when we unpack the Christmas boxes and someone will say, "Hey mom, wasn't this last years gimmick?" But that's OK, because one day when they're parents I KNOW they will be asking, "Do you still have that gotcha pillow? Can I borrow it?"