Lined Travel Bag and Christmas pillowcases

I've started making my grandchildren little travel sized (12" X16") 

pillowcases that fit pillows I buy at Joann's, when they come to visit us.

These are the ones I made this year, since they were here for Christmas :)

It was fun choosing the fabric, this one is Charlotte's.

I also bought them the softest little throw blankets I could find!

This one is Bridger's, sort of manly with the bearded gnomes :)

This one is for Kennedy, because she's like me and she likes vintage :)

Last but not least, is Lucy.

I gave her a traditional Santa :)

I bought this lined travel bag from In Color Order.

I made the project bag size, and want to make some more, they're great!

I made this bag to hold Coral, Queen of the Sea.

My little Charlotte loves pandas, so this fabric was perfect!

Thanks for visiting, have a great week!

Travel Pillows

This is such a cute little pillow, the size is 12" X 16".

This can be a little pillow to travel with, to decorate your bed, to use as a doll pillow or even a little dog pillow :)

I use mine to put behind my lower back on long car trips, and also for long flights.

I have a tutorial I made a while back, with all the measurements, and I have a boy version without a gathered ruffle.

You can find my travel pillow tutorial here.

I made this pillow out of Sarah Jane's Wee Wander collection.

I wish I had bought this line, I only have a couple of fat quarters.

This pillow is from Sarah Jane's Let's Pretend fabric line.

Little crowns, aren't they cute?

The ruffle is from Sarah Jane's Children at Play fabric line.

This little pillow was made from a Japanese print.

It matches a quilted wall hanging I made, you can see it here.

I love all the little people and animals and strawberries and details.

The ruffle is from Lori Holt's Gracie Girl fabric line.

These travel pillows are so much fun to make!

You can see more pillows I've made, here, here, and here :)

Travel Pillow

I have made so many of these pillowcases, I just love them!

I created a tutorial on the pillowcase, you can find it here.

This pillowcase has the theme "time is important", the fabric is Lori Holt's "Gracie Girl" by Riley Blake.
Aren't the clocks cute?

The back has numbers on it, so so cute!

I took a photo on my makeshift clothesline in the sewing room, but the lighting isn't as good.

I made this pillowcase for my son who is on a two year church mission in Brazil.  
I'm excited for him to see this new cover!

Another Travel Pillow

I made another travel pillow.  I don't know how many I've made, but I am keeping Joann Fabrics in business by buying their pillows!

This is the cutest fabric, it lists all sorts of fun things to do and create!

I think my favorite part of making a project, is choosing the colors and prints of the fabric.

This pillow will be travelling to Brazil with Sister VanWagenen, who will be serving a mission for 18 months.

Travel Pillow

I've posted about the "travel pillows" I've made quite a couple of times which you can see here and here.

I even have a tutorial which you can see here.

My son Sean said that he needs a new pillowcase.

I looked at my black prints but settled on this cute retro print of a little boy.  This will be a pillowcase for a 20 year old man!!!  Ha ha!

Sorry for the sideways photos.

This is what the back looks like, very vintage looking.

I love making these pillows, I have made so many of them!

Do you think he'll like it?

Travel Pillow

I made another travel pillow, I just love choosing the fabric combos.

This pillow is for a young nineteen year old girl who has been called to serve an 18 month church mission in Oslo, Norway. 
 The pillow comes in handy when you are on a plane, a train, a car, you get the picture :)

My son who is in Brazil, says that it is his favorite thing that he has with him!  I love to hear that, ha ha!!!

I thought of this girl and her personality and her love of Anthropologie, and thought that she might like "vintage" looking fabrics.  These are the three prints I chose.

I have been saving this vintage print for the perfect project.

The background is a cream, and it was hard to get contrasting prints to match.  These pins are my favorite!  They are extra fine by Clover.

Topstitching the ruffle isn't only functional, but it provides a nice, finished look.

What goes better with cherries, than polka dots?

I hope that whenever Nicole looks at this pillow, she will be reminded of her warm and cozy memories of her childhood, hence the vintage print. 

The cherry print ruffle reminds me of the song, "Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries", sung by Ethel Merman in 1931.

Life is just a bowl of cherries;

Don't make it serious;

Life's too mysterious;

You work, you save, you worry so.

But you can't take your dough when you go, go, go.

So keep repeating it's the berries;

The strongest oak must fall.

The sweet things in life

To you were just loaned.

So how can you lose what you've never owned?

Life is just a bowl of cherries,

So live and laugh at it all.

Life should be fun and not taken too seriously :)

I made some other travel pillows and posted about them here.

I wrote a tutorial for the travel pillow here.

If you decide to make a pillow, I would love to see photos!

Travel Pillow Tutorial

My friend Donna asked me if I would write a tutorial on my

 travel pillow .  It's really simple but when I make something, I find it so much easier to visualize if I can look at photos.

My son said that his pillow is his favorite thing that he brought with him on his two year church mission to Brazil.  I made a note of that.....lol, and decided to sew him another pillowcase so that he can rotate them.  This time I went to the fabric store and chose some "masculine" fabric.  This is what I chose....

The printed fabric is called "how to press a shirt".  Very appropriate, since my son wears a white shirt every day of the week.  When Sean was 15 years old, he earned his Boy Scout Eagle award.  His grandfather flew in from Florida for the occasion.  His grandfather is retired Air Force and very strict about creases in the sleeves of his pressed shirts.  I had shown Sean how to press a dress shirt before, but it wasn't his forte.  Sean came downstairs with a perfectly pressed shirt, and even creases in the sleeves!!!  We were all impressed, including Sean's grandfather.  Later my father in law asked me where the iron and ironing board was.  I showed him and we noticed a paper on the ironing board.  We picked it up and it said, "Google:  How to press a shirt".  We laughed and laughed, so this fabric has a lot of meaning!  Ha ha!!!


The pillow form that I buy at JoAnn's measures 12" X 16".  I cut two pieces of fabric, 17.5" X 13.5" each. 

I get such a thrill out of choosing fabric, that I choose a different print for the front and a different one for the back.  If you want to use the same print for the front and the back, you still need to cut out two pieces.  

I also cut out 2 pieces 4" X 14", for the edging on the pillow.

Here are my cut pieces.

Place the two pillowcase pieces right sides together and sew along three sides, the two long ones and one short side, using a 1/4" seam.

Finish the edges with a zig zag stitch to encase the raw edges.

Turn the pillowcase right side out and press.

Now take the two smaller edging pieces, and fold them longways, right sides together.  Lay them against the short end of the pillowcase.  I did that, and saw that I needed to sew the short ends of the edging with a l/2 seam allowance.  

Turn the edging right side out and press.

Pin the edging to the pillow case, matching the finished seam of the edging to the side seam of the pillowcase.

Pin the same edging piece to the other side seam and then finish pinning the rest of the edging piece to the pillowcase, right sides together (there isn't a wrong side of the edging).  I usually pin when I sew, it leaves less chance of having to rip out stitches!  My seam ripper and I have a love/hate relationship....

See how the edging pieces meet perfectly at the side seam?  The other side seam looks exactly the same.  The two flaps give a little more "masculine" look.  

Sew the two edging pieces to the entire pillowcase, using a l/4" seam allowance.  Then zigzag, encasing the raw edges of the seam.

Press the finished seam toward the pillowcase and staystitch.  Staystitch means to sew a seam close to the seam, so that the seam won't "roll up" and will stay pressed towards the pillowcase.

This is what the seam looks like on the inside.  Since the seam has been staystitched, it will never roll up, but always stay pointing towards the pillowcase.

Here is the "how to press a shirt" fabric close up, isn't it cute?

This is the front of the pillowcase.

This is the back, a nice argyle print.

I made one for my husband, as a birthday gift. (it's Sunday :)

If you would like to add a ruffle to your pillowcase instead of the plain edging, the measurement is one and a half times the width.  Instead of cutting your edging 14" long, I would cut it 44" long. You only need one piece instead of two.  If I don't have a piece long enough in the print I want for the ruffle, I often piece the fabric, joining different pieces together.  The seams never show.  

When I sew a ruffle onto my pillowcase, I use one piece and only have one flap instead of two.

There are two flaps on the edging of the masculine pillowcase.

That completes my travel pillow tutorial.  If you make one, I would love to see some pictures!