Embellishing Pillowcases the “easy way”

And that is exactly what these lovely ladies learned to do this past weekend. Embellishing the edge of a pillowcase just became the most easiest thing on the embroidery machine! No measuring, no ripping of seams….just embroider away, and attach to pillowcase. How simple!

In the blog Freestanding Cutwork Project I had written about using the concept of stitching out the complete cutwork design on a piece of fabric and then attaching it to a thick towel. I used the same concept with the cutwork edge pillowcase class and gave the ladies something new to think about. The technique is not limited to just pillowcases, rather one can use it to embellish any home decor or wearable item.

The design used for the class was from the Vintage borders I collection. On a standard pillowcase, the design is repeated three times. Not only was the class concentrating on learning cutwork edge technique but they also learned how to do a continuous border the simplest, easiest way ever. No math, no pre-planning or markings were involved in the continuous hooping and I had several excited ladies.  

The continuous hooping technique is one that I have often talked about on my blog. As I use Embird Studio for all my digitizing, I find using some of the features of Embird Editor in my planning and stitching. The easiest way to stitch out a design in a continuous border is to create a basting box around it and use it as a mark for continuous hooping. This eliminates any pre-planning of where to mark, using templates etc.

Anywhere I go, I find that I always learn something. It might be something I already know in the back of my mind and just needs to be brought to attention again. The variety of colors used for the cutwork edge of the pillowcase class suddenly reminded me that how any one design can look so very different depending upon color.

The finished pillowcases on the right how how just a bit of color can change the look. Ofcourse, this gives me more ideas and therein lies my forever quest…..time, time and more time. Will I ever have enough?