A PJ Pillowcase Birthday Party

What a fun way to celebrate your 10th birthday!  

Miss Special K had her 10th birthday recently and her mom and her were trying to decide what they could do special for her birthday. She wanted a slumber party, but then what?  I suggested they make pillowcases.  10 is a good age to begin girls sewing (some are capable younger than that as well) and the bonus is that it can be done in an evening and they get to go home with a USABLE project.

K and I went to JoAnn's to choose fabric, there were going to be 7 girls, including her, so that meant picking out 21 fabrics!  It takes one fabric for the main pillowcase, a coordinating one for the edge and a contrasting one for a flanged trim.   It sounded easy and fun going in, choosing what each girl might like.  But after a while choosing all those combinations became tedious.  K finally wore out and said they really didn't need the trim!  I ended up choosing them for her.  The problem was that we were making these out of nice flannels, and the selection wasn't as great.   We bought the fabric and I took it home and washed it, pre-cut it and make a little bundle of the coordinated sets to make it easier.

Birthday night rolled around and the girls were wound up!  They carpooled to my house/studio and came barreling in laughing and joking and just being girls.

They were excited to learn a new skill.  They took turns choosing which fabric bundle they wanted, and K was pretty close to being accurate in her assessment of her friends likes and dislikes.

I had all the machines ready, threaded and the speed turned all the way DOWN!   I demonstrated how to lay out all the pieces and carefully pin the layers together.

 And then to the machines.  No one, besides my granddaughter, had ever sewn by themselves.

So it was quite the experience and I was pleasantly surprised how well they really did.  Although I was glad my daughter came to help.

Teaching 7 young girls at one time took several hands.

 And of course, once done, K wanted me to embroider their names on them.  So while the girls played games and ate dinner and cake, I embroider their names on the pillowcase ends with my embroidery machine.

What a fun night!  One of the parents contacted me the next day, after her daughter went home, and asked what have I done?  Her daughter now wants a sewing machine for Christmas!!

And she got it too.  I think we might try to start a 4-H group with them this summer, and sewing is on the agenda.

I'll be posting a tutorial on making these Pillowcases.  They are SO simple and there are NO raw edges anywhere and NO serging or zigzagging the edges. It's like Magic!  Come back in a few days to see how to make these Magically Easy Pillowcases.