Pillows project

Today's project is on making new pillowcases for my office/guest room. How about I just call it the offuest room? No? 

If you've been following my redecorations, you'll know that my last three projects have turned me into the Sheriff of the Staple Gun. Pillowcases, however, as I will reassure anyone who will stay the night in my home, do not involve any staples.

Before: These are the pillowcases I'd made a few years ago for my old apartment:

After: These are the new pillowcases in black, white, and gray fabric.

Another thing I did, which actually isn't pictured, is to make the pillows on the end two-sided. That is, I used the ring dot fabric on one side, and the reeds fabric on the other. That way, I can flip the pillows so I have two of one pattern, or one of each pattern, facing out for some variety.

Materials:
-Fabric to fit pillows, plus a few extra inches to line up the pattern and for seam allowances
-Sewing machine, needle, thread, etc.

This is one of the most basic sewing projects I can think of (Can you draw a square? Yes? You can make a pillow.).  I cut out the squares, lined them up right sides together, and sewed them up on three sides. Then I flipped them right side out, stuffed the pillow in, and stitched them shut. Someday I may put in zippers, but I didn't find it necessary at the moment.

I was left with one red squishy "moshi" pillow. I think it may have resembled something round back in college, but in the present day, it was literally an amorphous blob. This too, I measured, and I made a cylindrical roll pillow to fit. Here are some pictures during the "in progress" phase:

Making this pillow was the opposite of the square pillows; while the square ones I could have made in my sleep, the roll pillow fought against me with every inch of its shapeless being. It's a rectangle sewn into a cylinder (easy) with circles on the ends (surprisingly tricky). I must have resewn and repositioned the circles on the ends at least 3-4 times. I was just glad I kept it simple and didn't use any fancy trim or different fabrics this time. Then I flipped it inside out and poured in the filling, which is made of impossibly tiny white balls, from the other pillow. I'm expecting I will still find tiny styrofoam balls stuck to my belongings 5 years from now.