The Little Lightsaber Baby Room: Part 3

As I wrote about in Part Two, I received something a little extra when the sheets arrived! I decided to tackle the pillowcase first. This was a simple process made a little more complex due to the fact that the fabric was so thin and flimsy. Plus, it's a blend, so it's not quite as crisp as 100% cotton.

I began by carefully ripping the seams out, flattening it, and pressing it. I then cut it into two different pieces. I know, it doesn't look like I pressed it, but I REALLY did!

It looked even and squared up when I cut it, but it was a bit off. Not a problem.

I rolled out some sheer interfacing (glue side up) and put one of the sides (right side up) on it.

I straightened and straightened and removed all the fuzz and thread. Then I carefully fused. 

The interfacing was bigger than the pillowcase, so I couldn't fuse too close to the edges of the pillowcase without getting gunk on my iron. But I fused what I could, knowing that I would cut some of it off.

 

Once it was mostly fused, I cut it down to size. One piece was about 18" x 30" and the other piece was about 17" x 30." 

After it was cut, I did a final fusing, paying particular attention to the outside edges.

After talking with Bridget, we decided that I'd make one side into a big throw pillow and she'd take the other side and have it matted and framed! FUN!

If you were wondering, here's what the pillowcase looked like when it was new! This will give you an idea of just how worn this is!

My next step was to make a quilt sandwich using cotton batting and muslin.

I quilted a simple diagonal grid with monofilament thread so the quilting would be seen but the thread would be invisible.

Whenever I use this thread, I use regular thread in the bobbin - something that matches the top. So in this case, I used white thread in the bobbin.

Love my walking foot!

Here it is! The quilting is done. BTW, I drew a line from corner to corner (with a water soluble marker). I sewed on the mark - then lined the guide on my foot up with the stitch line to create the remaining lines. These are 1" apart. Once I was done, I removed the line with water (you can see the "X" in the middle of the pillow) and cut off the batting and muslin. I lost about 1/2" from quilting.


I added blue Wright's piping along the edge. I was a little nervous to do this because I've never put a zipper in a pillow that also has piping. It was tricky - I had to go back and sew an extra row of stitches to hold the piping in, but it looks...fabulous!!

I backed it with a piece of tan twill cut to the same size as the pillow front.

The final touch was to sew the tag from the pillowcase to the back of the pillow.


I stuffed this with a few pillow inserts so I could take the picture. But because of its odd size (about 17" x 29"), I will make a muslin pillow insert and stuff it with fiberfill. Well, I will ship the pillow and the muslin and Bridget will stuff it!

On to PART FOUR: The Fitted Sheet!