Embroidered Pillowcase by Anja of Cocalores

One of my favorite ladies, who hails from a land far far away (aka Germany), is stopping by as our guest blogger today. I absolutely adore Anja's inventive furniture makeovers, crafty projects, and pretty much all of the things she writes about. I hope you'll take a moment to stop by her blog and see what she's all about; I promise you won't be disappointed! Now, let's get this party started...

Hi everyone! My name is Anja and I'm so glad to be here today at Spool and Spoon. You can usually find me over at Cocalores, where I blog mostly about my creative endeavors (which include sewing, baking, and giving new life to old furniture) but also about anything that strikes my fancy. Jess writes one of my favorite blogs, and she is such a sweet and amazing person! (Well, I guess that's preaching to the choir because you as her readers already know this!)

Do you also like reading the About Me page first? Well, here is mine in a nutshell:

• My husband, dog, and job are my everything. Well, that and my creative side.
• I'm German, so you'll always find lots of entertaining mistakes and clichés.
• I'm a redhead, but my go-to accent color is pink. Not always easy to make it work.
• My vices include coffee, chocolate, ice-cream, and lots of DVDs. Preferably at the same time.

I like pillowcases. There's nothing like a cute pillowcase to change the look of the room. So I'm going to share with you an easy embroidery and sewing project!

Yes, there's pink, but you can choose any color ;-)

1. Cut the fabric to the desired size. Add an extra inch on the sides, and  about five extra inches for the overlay on the back of the pillowcase.

2. After cutting, mark the area where you want to put your embroidery. You can do it with pins or thread. It doesn't have to be super-exact, but it helps to center it. I used an area which was about one inch smaller on every side.

3. After choosing what you want to embroider, jot it down. I always take simple pencils to write on fabric, but if you aren't sure about your hand-writing (or your equipment is just better ;-), then you can also use transfer paper or something like that. For my pillowcase it looked like this:

4. Choose your embroidery floss. I don't like the glossy one, but that's up to you. I don't know what the stitch is called, but you go back through the same hole that you've come through and then go through the loop again. Here, let me show you:

5. Then you've got some work ahead. It took me about two or three hours for the complete saying (but I watched Friends while doing that, so without distractions you could be quicker).

6. When sewing the pillowcase together I start with the parts that will be the opening. Fold them one inch, then sew. Then I use pins to keep them where they're supposed to stay.

7. Make sure that you have the exact measurements before sewing -  I sometimes get confused without them, so I'm super careful here. Then sew the sides of the pillowcase.

8. After you have finished, this will be your result.

9. As I hate buttonholes (well, I don't hate them per se, I just hate making them), I added pink snaps at the back of the pillow. I just love these brightly colored snaps!

10. And you're done. Time for a cup of coffee!

Curious what else I've got going on at my blog? Here are some ideas:

to-die for chocolate soufflé

painted & stenciled patio furniture

Eiffel tower printable

I'd love to see you at my blog!