Halloween and Owl Pillowcases

I'd made Halloween pillowcases for my granddaughter and grandson who live in Oklahoma (post dated 5/11/19), but I did not have enough of any one Halloween fabric in my stash to make a pair of king-size pillowcases for their parents' bed. I ordered some themed fabric online from the Missouri Star Quilt company but did not think it would arrive before I had to leave for Oklahoma. I had taken a screenshot of the fabric I'd ordered and, based on a printout of the screen shot, had tentatively picked the coordinating fabric from my stash for the borders and accent band, to sew when I got home. I picked a purple to go with the stripe and an orange/yellow to go with the windows and jack o' lanterns' features. The purple as a marbled print gives the feeling of spider webs. The harlequin print had yellow-shaded-to-orange shapes so I thought it might play up the eyes of the pumpkins and windows of the houses.

I suppose I could have had the feature fabric shipped to my daughter's in Oklahoma and brought my coordinating purple and orange along with me in my suitcase; however, I was not confident enough that fabrics selected based on a printout of a screenshot of a monitor image would be adequate color matches or blends. As it turns out, once I returned home and compared the real fabric to my selections, I was surprised at how well the trial coordinates worked. No worries however. Halloween is months away and I had plenty of time to make these pillowcases. But I knew there was a good chance I might forget, or procrastinate, or store the components in an obscure, irretrievable location. So I did them now. The feature fabric is Hocus Pocus by City Art Studio for Henry Glass & Co., Inc. The selvage on the feature fabric is adorable with its ghosts in 18 different colors flitting along the edge.

The pillowcases are king-sized. In the photo below each is folded in half lengthwise but is shown full width. I was careful to add the borders on opposite ends so when the pillowcases are on the bed, each has the purple border to the outside while the stripe is oriented upright.

Look closely. Upright means the bats are hanging upside down.

I had prepared two other pillowcase kits, with striped and owl prints, to take out to Oklahoma with me in case the kids really got into sewing. The doll blankets and pillows were enough to hold their interest and give my patience a sufficient workout that I elected to bring the pre-prepped kits home with me. Before I forgot and lost momentum, I sewed them up as well. (Pillowcases tend to be a low-energy project suitable for maintaining productivity while recovering from travel.) The selvages on these were informative but no where near as much fun as those on the Henry Glass fabric.

  

On this pair I put on my thinking cap to make sure I oriented the striped border on one pillowcase to slant in the same ordered sequence as the body on the mated pillowcase. From the top downward, the stripe color order on both is pink, blue, green, yellow. I can be picky, but I think these small details keep even the most mundane project interesting. Each pillowcase in the following photo is folded in half lengthwise and then in thirds widthwise.

Here is the pair of cases in their true proportions on the bed. I think these will stay at Grandma's house to be used when somebody visits. That's not to say they might not hitchhike home in somebody's suitcase... 🙂