Raggedy Ann and Andy Pillowcase

      

The lovely ladies over at Ladybird Ln are having a charity event/contest this month and given my recent sewing binge, I thought I'd participate!  Their young friend, Malynn (just 14 and having suffered some medical battles) has some mad crazy sewing skills and has decided to put them to good use by making a goal to donate 100 colorful and cheery pillowcases to a Children's Hospital.

Having searched through my own personal fabric stash, I came across a couple of Raggedy Ann and Andy prints that I thought would be perfect for such an occasion!

   

I didn't really have a pattern, but I figured it only takes a couple of rectangles to make a pillowcase, so it couldn't be that hard!  I measured a pillow to find the right dimensions.  It just so happened that the blue piece was almost exactly the right size for the main body of the pillow!  Score!

I then measured for the ruffly piece I would need as the border of the pillowcase.  The white fabric actually had two different Ann and Andy borders on it, so I decided to use those as the border of my pillowcase.  With the remaining white fabric, I cut a strip about 3 inches wide by 44 inches long to act as a "ribbon" detail.

As I started to work with the fabric, I could tell I would have to do something about its tendency to fray, so I decided to finish all of the seams using a french seam method, which sounds complicated and fancy, but it's not really.

To make a french seam:  1)  Pin your fabric WRONG sides together.  2)  Stitch a small (1/4 inch) seam.

3) Turn the fabric wrong sides out and press the seam so that it comes to a sharp edge.  4)  Stitch a little bit larger seam (1/2 inch) so that it encases the small seam.  When you are finished, you should have no raw edges showing at all which takes care of the problem of any fraying!

After just a few hours, my very cute Raggedy Ann and Andy pillowcase was all finished!  I will be sending it off to Malynn for her to include with all of the other pillowcases!  I hope that it helps to bring a little comfort and joy to the child who receives it.