Quick pillowcases

Sun, 16 Aug 2026 14:17:56 -0400

This project surprised me when I first tried it. Honestly I didn’t believe this would be as fast as it was, because as often happens with instructions I find online for sewing projects, their estimates on how long something takes vastly underestimates how much I can easily mess up a ‘simple’ project.

But no, this is genuinely a great one. So much so that I am probably going to teach my kid how to do this because it’s very satisfying.

Objective: Make pillowcases

Requirement: A yard/a meter of ONE fabric

Instructions: The Magic Pillowcase Pattern by SewCanShe

A few base assumptions for the yard of fabric is that it is ‘standard’ fabric width, in imperial measurements usually around 45 inches, or 110 cm in metric. USUALLY simple quilting cottons or similar (like lawn or sheeting) around around that width. So generally if you just get a yard, or a meter (or okay 90 cm if you’re being very precise), that’s perfect, and you don’t have to cut a blessed thing.

Four pillowcases I recently made. Three fabrics I picked up at Michael’s and the cat one is from Yuzawaya

You can make them more complex if you want to add contrasting seaming or a special different border fabric - I have done that plenty of times, especially when using remnants and I don’t have enough of just one fabric to make a pillowcase.

A huge, huge thank you to SewCanShe for the very detailed writeup on how to do this. The first time I made a pillowcase, maybe a dozen pillowcases ago, I really appreciated the detailed steps. Don’t be intimidated, the details are there to guide but I can assure you the steps basically boil down to this:

Fold the yard of fabric in half, right sides together
Sew two of the three open sides
Fold back the pillowcase border twice, 5" each time
Sew the outside edge along the pillowcase border

That’s how I shorthand it for myself in my notes anyway since I’ve made them so many times. I can whip them up by memory at this point - they really are fantastically easy.

So when I see some very cute quilting fabrics, or my kid does (realistically that’s usually what happens), I pick up a yard, bring it home, and that night I have new pillowcases.

Some notes:

Yes, you will be happier if you prewash your fabric but again these pillowcases are very easy and not fussy. I’ve been lazy a few times and washed after I finished sewing them. (We’ve all done it, I’m not judging)
I don’t always cut the selvedge off because I’m come from the school of Waste Nothing, so I usually incorporate the selvedge into the seam.
You will be MUCH happier if after you do the initial fold if you do a quick trim of the edge to make it square. Especially if you get that quilting cotton from a generic craft store where the person cutting doesn’t really know what they’re doing… sigh I miss Joann’s
French seam if you’re feeling fancy! Especially if you’re gifting them, it’s a nice touch. (I don’t bother for ones I just use at home… sorry fam.)

A closeup of the pillowcase seam

And if you’re like me and sometimes after doing the border fold the seam you sew doesn’t exaaaaaactly grab the raw edge of the fabric, I sometimes don’t bother ripping out stitches and starting again. I will often just re-fold and sew a second seam next to the first. That does the trick.

House Goods on Maria Makes A Mess

Quick pillowcases