Gift Idea - Crochet Embellished Pillow Cases

This might be a fairly long post. So fasten your reading glasses on good and tight. ;)

As I've stated before, I have a lot of sisters. Yep. A lot.

My four younger sisters and I made a pact with each other at the beginning of January. We decided to plan for Christmas the entire year in 2012 instead of being caught unawares in November. Between the 5 of us, we have 21 children. Imagine what gift buying (and making) can be like when you wait to get started on it.

We've been texting and emailing each other with our purchases and things that we've made. We also have started putting some extra cash back as well. We're keeping each other on track as well as motivating ourselves when we get discouraged or run out of ideas. I mean, after all, times are tough for every one right now, regardless of our incomes.

Some of the items that I have been thinking about are crochet embellished pillow cases.

I have been looking at thrift stores and buying up single pillow cases when they have the $1 a bag sale. I haven't been too picky about the pillow cases in regards to the patterns as I think the wild patterns are "in" right now. The only thing I make sure of is that the pillow cases are not stained or torn. I've also bought a few pillow case pairs for 75 cents. That's still a bargain!

While I was watching TV tonight, I sat down with 2 of the pillow cases and some matching embroidery floss and whipped out a basic crochet trim on them.

The one on the top has an orange trim and the one on the bottom has a pink trim.

I used 3 skeins of each color. (It feels weird calling these little bundles of floss a skein.)

I did not separate the floss but used it as it came. That way it would be more substantial on the pillow case. I didn't have any trouble threading my needle with it either.

I used my tape measure to mark 1/2 inch intervals on the inside of the pillow case edge and then did a blanket stitch all the way around. I found it was easier to thread the entire skein of floss into the needle and stitch away. If I had to tie the floss off and add more along the edge, it was a pain as well as not too good looking. It takes about one skein of floss to go around the entire edge.

For the crocheting part, I selected my size B hook and grabbed one end of the floss and started crocheting along the blanket stitch. I was able to put 4 or 5 sc's in each stitch area without it bunching up or being too far apart. In the end, I think it turned out quite well. I used less than 2 skeins of floss to crochet all the way around the edge. When I ran out of one skein I tied the other skein to it and hid the ends as I crocheted.

As for cost, these two pillow cases were bought a few weeks ago and a pair (even when they didn't match each other) of them cost 75 cents. Divide that by two and I paid roughly 38 cents each. Add 3 skeins of floss at 35 cents each and the grand total is $1.43 per pillow case.

I am hoping that my nieces and sisters will enjoy getting a few of these as part of their gift from me! I am loving them and might keep some for myself as well!