Bedtime Festivity

Showing off the first of my Christmas crafts!  For some of the important kids in my life (including my own), I decided to make festive pillowcases in nice warm flannel.  For my nieces, I included a copy of one of my favorite Christmas books - Mary Engelbreit's version of The Night Before Christmas.  I like it because it is very detailed and completely jolly!  I had them open their gifts before Christmas so they could enjoy them for a couple of weeks, so I am now free to show them off without spoiling any surprises. 

Pillowcases are a great sewing project for someone who is perhaps less confident with sewing skills.  The cool thing about making a standard pillowcase is that it takes exactly one yard of 45" wide fabric.  No waste!  (Well, except for trimming edges to straighten them.)  It's just a bunch of straight stitching, folding over twice, more straight stitching - all you have to do is pull a pillowcase out of the linen closet and take a look at how it's put together and you are on your way. 
I love the rick-rack embellishment on these (and it hides the stitch underneath). 
I loved making them so much (I made 8 total) that I bought some more non-holiday flannel to make a couple more for my boys for the new year.  My sister claims that there is no such thing as a half-hour craft, but I am here to tell you, if you have washed and pressed flannel, this takes slightly less than 30 minutes, start-to-finish.  Wahoo!  Need a gift from the heart but it's taken you a long time to decide what to make?  This is for you!
Stay tuned for another one of my projects coming very soon (I need to photograph them before I give them all away).