Monogram Pillowcase Tutorial

A couple weeks ago we celebrated my daughters birthday.  She wanted a pajama party and all the fun to go with it.  We brainstormed about party favors, and we came up with pillowcases, necklaces (those girls love to be pretty), and chocolate (yep, girls love that too).  I pondered about what to do with pillowcases.  Should I make the pillowcases?  Should I embroider them? I love the embroidered look, but I don't have an embroidery machine, and my sweet hubby suggested asking a friend for help would be a burden.  New idea, what if I bought pillowcases and decorated them?  I finally came up with the simple (if you don't know me yet, I LOVE simple) idea of ribbon and a first initial.

Prepare the letters:

I have heard the Cricut can cut fabric.  I tried it once (with a friends machine), and it didn't work. Hmmm.  If you can use your cricut, please do, and ignore my advice.  If, you are like me, and are too cheap for a cricut, read on.

I created in Photoshop (I am sure you could use Word, I have Pages, and I couldn't find a way to make it in a mirror image), a document with the letters and sizes I needed.  Measure the area you plan to put the letter first.  Pick a font you like, I used century gothic, made it bold, and then used the outline feature of the font.  Now, make it a mirror image of the letter.  In Photoshop,go to Edit, Transform, Flip Horizontal.

Here comes the fun part.  Choose the fabric you want to use, and use an iron on adhesive according to its directions.  Cut the fabric to an 8  1/2" x 11" size (or if you are expert, make it the size your printer can handle).  Place the fabric face UP, and then print (make sure the printer will print on the paper, not the fabric).   Using the printed lines as a guide, cut your letters out, and iron them on your pillowcase.  I also used a small satin stitch to finish off the letters.

Adding the Ribbon

This is super easy, simply sew the ribbon on using matching thread on the top and bobbin.  One bit of advice is to start at a seam, with the ribbon extending a little over the seam, and then when the ribbon is completely around the pillowcase, fold the ribbon over 1/2 - 1/4" and sew down (right on the seam).

Pretty easy, pretty cute, and super fun.