Holiday Pillowcases for Kids Tradition – Sewing for Every Season
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To my children, there is very little more exciting than the holidays.
As such, I find every way I can to get them ramped up for the occasion!
So, I’m excited about the holiday pillowcases I FINALLY finished for my daughters!
It all started with a Christmas pillowcase for my older daughter years ago, and now it’s exploded into an entire ridiculous collection of seasonal pillowcases.
The thought behind this tradition is simple.
As the special time of year rolls around, I dig out the matching themed pillowcases and put them on their pillows a few weeks ahead of time.
Of course, the cases don’t match the rest of their sheet sets, but my girls love sleeping on the fun pillowcases every night. This, in turn, helps them get even more excited about the holiday!
What’s great about this idea is even if you’re new to sewing, sewing a pillowcase is one of the easiest projects you can tackle.
There’s no fancy cutting and no fancy sewing involved (unless, of course, you want to add french seams or something else decorative).
Holidays to Sew Pillowcases – My Ideas
Here are the holidays, seasons, and events that I’ve made pillowcases for so far:
- Valentine’s Day
- St. Patrick’s Day
- Easter
- Last day of school (first day of summer break!)
- Fourth of July
- First day of school
- Halloween/Fall
- Thanksgiving
- Christmas
One special occasion I decided not to include is their birthdays. Mainly because one daughter is born two weeks before Christmas and the other two weeks after. I might add them in later, but I’m not sure yet.
Of course, there are even more options if you are not in the United States or celebrate different religious or cultural holidays.
The only constraint that exists is being able to find themed fabric. Either that or having access to an embroidery machine or HTV cutting machine to add a perfectly themed seasonal design to your holiday pillowcases.
Instead of cramming this article with individual holiday pillowcase pictures, here’s a nice grid above showing them all!
The fabrics are all simple woven cotton, and most came from Michael’s (I love that they finally have fabric in store!), Hobby Lobby, or JOANN.
Sewing a Seasonal Pillowcase
I don’t spend much time sewing these seasonal pillow covers because my daughters could care less about frills and other decorations.
I also almost always use my serger to make pillowcases now. Three or four seams and done, depending on the type I make!
If you don’t have a serger, hundreds of simple pillowcase tutorials and patterns are floating around the internet to give you fabric dimensions and instructions. (Here’s a really popular video tutorial from YouTube, for instance.)
I also prefer to use just one fabric for the pillowcases rather than having a different fabric opening as an accent.
They’re easier to make that way, and I don’t always have perfectly coordinated solid fabrics in my craft room. (And, shopping online for color-coordinated fabric is impossible to get a good match. I don’t spend as much time as I used to browsing fabric stores!)
Fabric Requirements
If you’re buying fabric that’s not directional, 1 – 1 1/4 yards of cotton fabric should work.
If the fabric is directional and you want it to face a certain way, purchase at least 1 1/4 yards.
I’ve gotten stuck a few times trying to be cheap and buying only one yard to realize then it was horribly cut, meaning I’d have to change how I had planned to orient my fabric.
If you are sewing larger than a standard-size pillowcase, you may need even more fabric depending on directionality.
Additional Pillow Cover Inspiration
If you also enjoy sewing pillowcases, here are a few old posts from the blog.
Want to make an existing pillowcase into a smaller pillowcase for a young child? Check out my super easy tutorial for sewing a toddler pillowcase out of a standard pillowcase.
Have a button-down shirt and want to repurpose it? Sew an envelope pillow cover out of that old shirt.
Done Making Holiday Pillowcases?
That’s all I’ve got for now.
Any holidays that you’d be sewing pillowcases for? Or, any other ideas you’d like to add for fun holiday traditions for kids that involve sewing?