Whirly Gig Pillow Case Tutorial

15 Comments / By / September 11, 2011
Do you like squishy packages? I do!  Barb and Mary, from Me & My Sister Designs, were kind enough to send me an extra charm pack of Amelia so I could put together a fun tutorial!  I decided to create a pillow for Anne. She just moved into a toddler bed and still doesn’t use a pillow at night, but we spend a lot of time reading on her daybed in the play room and she LOVES this pillow!  The pillow case fits a queen size pillow and is way easier to make than it looks 🙂
Get the know how after the jump!

The Supplies:

  • 1 Charm Pack – I picked Amelia – but this would work with any charm pack
  • Lil’ Twister Tool
  • Rotary Cutter
  • GO! or GO! Baby – Value Die
  • 1 yard fabric for backing
  • 1/2 yard white fabric
  • Basic Sewing Supplies
I started by grouping my charms into color groups – I wanted a somewhat random arrangement.

Next lay out your charm squares into 5 rows by 8 columns

Sew your rows together into one solid piece – using white fabric cut four 3.5″ by width of fabric pieces and sew on for the border.

Using your Lil’ Twister – line it up on the seams and cut around it

Here’s what it will look like when you have cut all your Lil’ Twister squares (cutting is what took me the most time!)

I really did like the Lil’ Twister tool – the only thing that I did not appreciate was where it said there would be “1/4 to 1/3” percent fabric loss/waste.  This floored me and I couldn’t stand the idea of “wasting” that much fabric. See below.

Doesn't that seem like an awful lot of "waste"!!!

Layout your squares – you will have to rotate them slight to get your whirly gigs to line up.  Here is what your whirly gig should look like close up.

For each row (in the end there will be 3 total) I had 3 blocks that measured 6.5″ by 6.5″ and 1 block that measured 9.5″ by 6.5″)

Now what do you do with your “waste” fabric?!? – Use your GO! or Go! Baby and cut the waste down to 2.5″ squares. If you do not have a GO! – this could easily be done with a quilting ruler and a rotary cutter!

Sew all of your whirly gig blocks together – do you like how the white makes such a decorative border?

Next use your 2.5″ squares to assemble your borders – I ended up needing to cut 4 extra squares out of my white fabric AND I had two extra charm squares (charm packs come with 42 squares and I only used 40 above) that I also cut into 2.5″ squares for a grand total of 12 extra squares.

Next – from the white fabric you will want to cut a 5.5″ wide piece of fabric that measures to the same length as the short side of the pillow case (mine was 31″). Fold that strip in half and press it flat. Use a 1/4 seam and attach it to the short side of your pillow – this will be the opening of the pillow.

Using your backing fabric cut a piece with the same dimensions as the front except it should be 3.5″ longer.  Fold one of the short edges over 1/2 inch and press. Fold that same edge over 1/2 inch and press again. Fold it over 2″ and press a third time. Top stitch the edge down being sure to catch the front and the pressed 1/2 seam.  This will be the opening for the backing.

Make sure when you put your pieces together to sew that your folded pieces are at the same side – put pieces right side together and pin! – sew with a 1/4 seam – I decided to go over my stitching with a zig zag stitch to really secure it – if my serger were working I would have serged it for that nice finished look, but alas it needs to go to the shop.

Turn your pillow case right side out, press and Voila! A pillow case has been born!

Anne was tickled pink when she saw it first thing in the morning!  And the best part is it makes a beautiful decorate pillow during the day and at night you can flip it over to the solid backing and it becomes a functional pillow without all those seams pressing on your baby’s beautiful face!

Good luck – if you have any questions let me know!

 

 

15 thoughts on “Whirly Gig Pillow Case Tutorial”

  2. SewHappyGeek

    What a great tutorial! I love how you used the leftover squares – I don't like loads of waste either.

  9. Vicki

    love that pillow! thanks so much for the tutorial- you are a great blogging buddy to have. xoxo

  10. Lindsay

    So pretty! I love all the fabric choices! Your efforts paid off big time! Thanks for sharing this @ Show & Share!

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