Hello Friends! It's been a really, really long time since I've posted. Wow.
I am participating in the Journey to Nebula #journey2nebula sew along. Are you? This week, Julie, of Jaybird Quilts, who is hosting the sew along (so amazing of her to be providing us with amazing tutorials and helps along the way!) provided all participants with a free pattern called Gemstones Pillowcases. They are designed to match the Nebula quilt we will all be making next year in the block-of-the-month program. I decided I would sew up these pillowcases. As I read through the pattern however, I noticed that there would be some raw edges inside the pillowcase. I wasn't really keen on that. I've made pillowcases using the "burrito" method before, and I really like that method. The advantage to this method of sewing the pillow case is that there are no raw edges anywhere on the inside of the pillowcase. It's such a professional finish. I also wanted to include a little flange between the cuff and the pillowcase, which the "burrito" method often does. So, I set my mind to thinking about how I could adapt this pattern for that construction style. It worked out, and I thought I'd share it if anyone else was interested.
If you aren't familiar with the "burrito" style pillowcase method, I encourage you to watch this video by Crafty Gemini. I think it really explains the method well. There are lots of other tutorials on this method, also. Just google "burrito pillowcase," and you'll find them. This is not meant to be a full-on tutorial of the "burrito" method, but rather a way to hack this specific pattern for this construction method. So, please do watch Crafty Gemini's video for more details.
One thing you need to understand about the "burrito" method is that it uses French seams. French seams involve sewing a seam once, then flip the item inside out, and sew the seam again, encasing the raw edges within another seam. This second seam is generally a little wider, to be sure all raw edges are inside. French seams are often a sign of high quality, professional work. The cuff on the Gemstones Pillowcase is a pieced cuff consisting of some diamond-shaped gemstones. The cuff is designed so the diamonds encircle the cuff, meeting at the joining seam perfectly. Therefore, you will want your first and last gemstone to line up and for the points on the edges not to be cut off. The way the pattern is written, there is only a 1/4" seam allowance for these gemstones. To do a French seam, you will need a 5/8" seam allowance. Thus, you'll need to cut your edge setting triangles a little differently, and you'll need to sew a y-seam. Therefore, a few hacks to the pattern are needed to make these adjustments. Let me show you how I did this.
(Caveat: This is the way I made the pillowcase with enclosed seams. There may be other [and even better] ways to do this! This is just what I did!)
First, follow the pattern until you get to Page 3. When you get to the part that tells you how to Cut Band Half Triangles, this is where you will need to make a modification. In order to make the French seams, we need to allow for a bigger seam allowance here, so we have to cut these pieces bigger than is described in the pattern. Follow the instructions for Steps 1 and 2 on Page 3 of the pattern. However, when you get to Step 3, you will need to cut this piece bigger. In the pattern, you are to align the vertical solid line on the ruler with the end of the fabric. However, instead, to allow for the French seam, you will need to add about an additional inch beyond the solid line. (This will give you extra to trim off later.) So, line up the edge of your fabric on one of the vertical lines on your cutting mat. Then, align the vertical solid line on the ruler with a line that is 1" away from your cut edge. See photo below. I cut your angle, following the ruler.
Next, follow the instructions in the pattern for Step 4 to rotate your ruler. Again, however, we are going to make this cut bigger than is suggested in the pattern. To make it easy on myself, I took the piece I cut in the step above and laid it right on top of my fabric. I then aligned my ruler with the cut edge from the piece cut above and cut again. I now have four cut pieces shaped similar to the ones in the pattern, but mine are wider than the ones shown in the pattern.
Set these pieces aside for now, and continue following the instructions on Page 3 of the pattern (Cut Band Triangles), as instructed in the pattern.
Proceed to Page 4 of the pattern, and follow the instructions to Sew Pieced Band until you get to Step 5. Here is were we need to make a modification to our sewing to attach these wider pieces of fabric. We will need to make a y-seam, given the extra width on our fabric.
Lay out your pieces to be sewn. It should look like this at the moment.
Next, flip the top piece, right sides together with the gemstone, as instructed in the pattern. However, mark a little X at the corner to indicate your 1/4" seam allowance. See photo below. This point will be where you start sewing. (Incidentally, the center of this X should land right on the seam between the lighter and darker purple piece of fabric below.)
Put the piece under your needle. Here (below) you see me lowering my needle right into the center of that X. I'm going to start sewing here. I took one stitch, then one back stitch, then I sewed to the end of the piece. When I reached the end of the piece, my needle exited right in the "crook" formed by the dogears, which are those little triangles hanging off the edge.
It should look like this (below) after sewn:
Open that seam and finger press. I just let my seams go to the outside (rather than pressing open, as the instructions suggest) at this point. Next, we're going to sew the bottom piece on in a similar fashion. Put the bottom piece, right sides together with the gemstone piece, as instructed in Step 5 on Page 4. However, again, mark that X in the center and this time we will STOP sewing there. (See photo below.) Again, the center of that X should be hitting right at the seam between the light and dark purple below it.
Now, you will sew from the end of the seam toward that X.
When you get to that X, STOP sewing. Stop with your needle as close as you can get to the center of that X, without going over. (See photo below.) Take a backstitch and remove your sewing from the machine.
Open this piece out now and finger press to the outside again. You should have the two pieces sewn to your two gem sides, but the two outer fabrics are not connected in the middle. If you look where you stopped sewing at those Xs, it should look something like this (below). Think of this little point as a "pivot point" for your next step. You'll be pivoting this to match the right sides of your background fabrics together.
Now, we will sew that center seam between the two background fabrics you just attached to the gemstone. Take the two raw edges of the background fabric, and align them, right sides together. In doing so, your gemstone will need to fold a little. That's okay. That's what it's supposed to do. It should look something like this (below) right now:
It's really important that up by that X, you've pushed all the purple fabric (or whatever color you are using) out of the way. We ONLY want to sew through those two background fabrics right now. We don't want to catch any of the purple fabric in this seam. Here is what that little intersection looks like from the side on mine (below):
See how I pushed that purple fabric out of the way from where I will be sewing next (which is where the pin is)? Okay, so now, you are going to sew this seam. If possible, I like to start at the center of the X and sew out. (See below.) But you can also start at the end and sew toward the X if you prefer. The key factor is not to sew past the X, regardless of which direction you are going.
After I've sewn it, it looks like this:
And now is the moment of truth. Take a big breath and open it out. It should lay flat and look like this (see below). If you have a pucker or something, chances are, you sewed a stitch or two past the X. Unpick those stitches and try again, this time, being sure to stop just a smidge before or right on the X.
When it looks like this, I do a little happy dance! Woot Woot! You just did a y-seam! Not so bad, right?! I took it to the iron here and pressed it. I let the two seams on the edges of the gemstone go to the outside, and I pressed the seam between the back ground pieces open. See all the extra seam allowance you have to the left of this gemstone now? That will be plenty for making our French seam.
Repeat all this again for another gemstone so you have one for the other end, too.
Continue now with Step 6 of the pattern on Page 4. Keep going onto Page 5, all the way through Step 10. You should now have your row of gemstones put together, just like the picture shows. The only difference is you should have a lot more seam allowance on the two ends than 1/4" beyond the side top of the two end gemstones.
We are now going to trim that seam allowance up just a bit. I wasn't sure how much I'd need, so I gave myself extra. I'd rather trim off than be short, after all that work! We are going to need 5/8" seam allowance past the corner of your gemstone. So, align the 5/8" mark with the tip of your gemstone. It's hard to see in my photo below, because that 2 is so large, and the circle around it is so large, but I have the 5/8" mark on the tip of that gemstone. I also have the white line on my ruler following that seam in the center of the gemstone to make sure my ruler is straight. I'm going to cut off that extra seam allowance.
After cutting, it looks like this:
Repeat this on both sides. You may want to take it back to the sewing machine and just reinforce that little seam between the two background pieces to make sure it doesn't come undone. If you had backstitched, those backstitches just got cut off. When I turned my pillowcase right side out in subsequent steps, I had trouble with the seam coming undone, so I recommend reinforcing that little seam right now.
About now is when my husband came out and asked me if I wanted a glass of wine. It was getting close to supper time (hence all the long shadows in the photos). I said, "Um, I mean, I wouldn't say no!" Feel free to go get one for yourself, too, at this point!
Okay, we are on a roll now! You should be on Page 6 of the pattern. Now, our band of gemstones is a little longer than what's written in the pattern, so you'll need to add some more length to your other band fabric that you sew to your gemstones. I measured my pieced band and found it was 42-3/4". You may want to check yours. On Page 6, Step 1, if your pieced band is the same as mine, you'll need to add 3/4" to the width of your band fabric. Cut it 42-3/4". Keep the height the same.
Follow Step 2 as instructed, but do NOT complete Steps 3 and 4. This is where we are going to do the "burrito" method. From this point forward, we won't use many of the steps of the pattern. We will refer to some of the cutting and topstitching directions, but we will not be following the basic construction method from this point forward.
If you want a flange like mine, then like in the "burrito" video, this is the time to add it. Typically, you should cut your flange 2" tall by, in this case 42-3/4" (or the width of your band). But I didn't have a 2" strip that long. All I had was an extra 2-1/2" dark purple strip leftover from the cutting on Page 2. I only needed 2 of the 3 strips I cut for making the gemstones. I was making two pillowcases, so I knew I'd need two strips that wide. Thus, I cut my 2-1/2" strip of fabric in half so it measured 1-1/4" by 42-3/4". Now I had two of pieces of fabric for a flange, one for each pillowcase. So, my flange is quite a bit skinnier than other flanges described in the video I linked to above. But I liked the skinnier flange for this application, in the end.
Take this to the ironing board and press it in half, wrong sides together, so that it now measures 3/4" by 42-3/4". Align the raw edges of this piece to the raw edges of your pieced pillowcase band. See photo below. Typically, I just pin this and then go to the next step. But, given that the pieced band has so many points and pieces to it, I took this to my machine and basted it to the pieced band, using a 1/8" seam allowance. I figured, the flange is so skinny, and there is so much bulk in the seam allowance, that basting it would keep it from sliding around when I did the next steps. It worked out well, and I recommend that.
Now, we are going to start building our burrito. We are going to treat this band that we have pieced as a solid piece of fabric, like what was used for the cuff in the video I referenced above. The flange, your pieced band, and that solid piece of band you have all sewn together will be your pillow cuff.
Next, you need to cut your pillowcase body. On Page 7 of the pattern, there are dimensions given for cutting this. You will need to add 3/4" to each dimension to account for your french seams. So, add 3/4" to both the width and the length measurements given in the pattern. Next, you will align the 42-3/4" raw edges of the part of your band with the flange attached and your pillowcase body.
Pin these together. I like to pin at each end, then pin in the center (making sure centers are aligned), then pin in between.
After you have all that pinned, grab the other 42-3/4" end of the pillowcase body and roll it up toward your pins. Stop just a little shy of the pins, as shown below:
Next, you will take that 42-3/4" raw edge that is the solid piece of your pillowcase band/cuff and bring it up over that roll of fabric and match it to your pinned edge. Match all the raw edges and pin them together. See photo below for how it looks as you are pinning:
And here (below) it is all pinned and ready to sew. You've now made your "burrito." All the fillings are inside that cuff. I know. It seems really strange, but this works very slick.
Go to the sewing machine, and sew this long edge with a 1/4" seam. As suggested in the pattern, you may want to sew with the pieced part of the cuff up so you can see your points and make sure you aren't sewing over points and cutting them off. When you are done sewing, you should have a tube, and all your pillowcase is inside the tube. Reach inside the tube and start pulling your pillowcase out of the tube.
When you get everything out of the tube, you should have a nice cuff, and all the raw edges of your cuff (except the sides) should be encased at this point. It always makes me smile and giggle a little bit here. I love how this works. When you get everything pulled out, it's time to iron things. I took it to the ironing board, and it should look something like this. I wanted my flange to go away from the gemstones, so I pressed all the seams in the cuff up from the flange toward the gemstones. (Note: This is opposite of what Julie instructs you to do in the pattern. But if I had pressed toward the pillowcase body, my flange would have flipped up toward the diamonds, and I didn't want that.) The solid piece of cuff fabric we sewed onto the gemstones wraps around the front a bit to leave a nice faux-binding edge. I like that about this pattern.
Although the pattern doesn't tell you to do so, I decided to topstitch along this faux binding. I just thought it would keep things together a bit better. Do as you like here.
I also topstitched just slightly above the flange to keep everything in place. (See below.)
We are super close to being done now! Next you will fold your pillowcase WRONG sides together. It seems so unintuitive, but you did read that correctly. WRONG sides together. Pin all the way around. There are a couple of critical junctures you should pin together. Match up those two seams in the background fabric (from when we made the y-seams). Those should be aligned. Also, your flange fabric should be aligned. So, put a pin in that. The rest is all easy peasy sewing. Sew around the two raw edges of your pillow case using a 1/4" seam allowance. I can't stress this enough...Don't sew bigger than 1/4". If anything, err on making your seam allowance a scant 1/4".
When you are done, if you want, clip the lower corner, where you had to pivot, and also the corner where you ended your stitching. This will give you a better corner when you turn it. inside out.
Also, if you have a lot of threads coming off your seam allowances, this is a good time to trim them off. It's much easier to trim them now than after we do the next step. For example, I had a lot of threads hanging off this part (below):
Much better after cleaning those off. This will make my life much better, and the finish will be cleaner.
Turn your pillowcase inside out now, and poke out those two lower corners. You want to make sure your corners don't get trapped in the next seam. Go to the iron and give it a good press. Make sure your seams are pressed all the way out and there is no excess fabric nested in the seam.
Next, we are going to go to the sewing machine and sew those same two sides again. But this time, we will use a 3/8" seam allowance. Using a larger seam allowance will make sure all those raw edges are captured inside the seam, never to see the light of day again. Whereas in the last step, you should err on the side of a scant 1/4" seam, if you err on this seam, err on the side of making it "fat." You do not want to sew skinny here and have any raw edges poking out.
If you don't have a pieced band, there is not much to worry about here. However, we have all those diamonds we pieced going around this band. I wanted the side points of those diamonds to align. Here is now I did that.
First, I put a pin in each point, going from front to back. This is a version of Julie's "hangpin" method.
Next, I flipped the pillowcase inside out. You can see the two pins sticking out. I stuck another pin in from the back through the same hole as the pin was coming out.
I then removed the pin from underneath, because I now had that spot marked with my pin coming from the back. I next took that green heart pin in the photo above, and stuck it through the hole that the pin across from it was coming out of. I removed the pin sticking up at this point. So, now it looks like the photo below. I have now aligned those two points. I squeezed the fabric together and made sure that pin was perpendicular to the seam.
I can't sew it with a pin sticking up perpendicular to my machine bed, so I put a clip there to hold things together. I also used a Frixion pen to make a mark where the pin was and then removed the pin.
As I sew, that dot will remind me that my needle should hit just barely to the right of it if I want my points to align and I don't want to cut any points off. I left this clip on as long as I could...got as close to that dot as I could, so it held things together and kept them from shifting.
I also had a pin in where the flange was, to hold that neatly in place. However, as you'll see later, I almost never get my flange to line up right, for some reason. I've given up trying to figure out why, and I just roll with it. Haha.
When you're done, it looks like this on the inside. Look how nice and neat everything is!
You can now turn your pillowcase right side out and inspect your work. Here's mine. Not too shabby. The points of the diamonds align, and no points are cut off! Some of that is due to the extra seam allowance we created with those y-seams. That allowed for this French seam. Some of that is due to our "hangpin" technique and aligning those points. My flange is not perfectly aligned, but I can live with that.
Finished pillowcase!
And inside, everything's neatly finished!
I have made many pillowcases using this "burrito" method before. I really, really like the finish. I have never made a pillowcase with a pieced band/cuff. It was a special challenge for me to figure out how to adapt this pattern for the "burrito" construction technique. Figuring out how to get that extra seam allowance on the sides to allow the points to still come together was a fun challenge. It was totally worth the extra effort for me to not have raw edges inside. I hope this little pattern hack has been helpful to someone else out there.
I have really enjoyed the entire #journey2nebula process. I didn't think I needed to learn much to use this ruler and to prepare for the Nebula Block of the Month program starting soon. But I was wrong. I learned lots of tips and tricks from Julie, and I have thoroughly enjoyed every pattern I have tried. I am really looking forward to Nebula even more than I was before, now. Looking forward to seeing the rest of you on that trip!
Happy sewing!
Stephanie
AKA Mama Pea
