How to Sew a Pillowcase with French Seams

I’m sure you can relate. You go out and buy lovely bedding that feels great and looks great too. Before using your bedding, you stick it in your washer and dryer and what was a perfectly squared up pillowcase or sheet is now the shape of Arkansas. You’ll never be able to fold it perfectly and it’s all skewed on your bed. I’m sure I’m not the only one annoyed by cheap bedding that you pay a fortune for to only have it shrink in weird ways in your washer and dryer. Solution: make your own pillowcases.

For 1 queen sized pillowcase you will need:

• 1 yard for the body (cut to 27 1/2″ x full fabric width*)
• 1/3 yard for the cuff (cut to 9 1/2″ x full fabric width*)
• 1/8 yard for the accent stripe (cut to 2″ x full fabric width*)

Washing and drying your fabric before cutting and sewing, will eliminate the skewing effect on your final pillowcase. Don’t skip this step. You may need to quickly iron your fabric after washing and drying to make sure you can cut it perfectly. I found that sewing the pillowcase is easy. Just be sure to take your time to correctly cut your fabric as perfectly as possible. This will result in a final pillowcase that’s awesome. Use a rotary cutter and ruler, as opposed to scissors. You’ll get a clean-cut and straighter lines using a rotary cutter.

Here’s a video that reviews the process of making your own pillowcase: