The Lily of the Valley Craft Room: Dance Team Travel Pillowcase DIY...Take Two!

Varsity Dancer Pillowcase

Here's an update to my previous post "Dance Team Travel Pillowcase DIY" from 2015...and, as you can see, I went for the sparkle! This project starts with some basic sewing skills to make the pillowcase (you can see the step-by-step from the 2015 post) and the lettering designs use a cutting machine again (in my case, Cricut Explore.) That being said, I'm sure you could use sparkly iron-on letters purchased from the craft/fabric store and hand cut the shapes yourself...and probably even find pre-made travel pillowcases. But, that would most likely be more expensive than my DIY version. Since I was making mine to sell, I had to keep the initial costs low enough to make a good profit for the team's general fund!

I just love the bright and cute chevron fabric that was a "fat quarter" quilting bundle of 5 pieces I bought from my local Tuesday Morning store for only $5. And, all of the iron-on designs were small enough to make from scraps (I never throw any of that stuff away because it's kinda spendy!) This time around, I did decide to make pillow inserts since I made them to sell at our competition's gift table. For those, I used inexpensive muslin and fiber fill purchased from the fabric store. As a rule, I cut the insert form fabric at the same size as the finished pillowcase. That way, with a 1/2" seam allowance on all sides of the insert it fits in the pillowcase perfectly. Oh, and as always...pre-wash your fabric before applying any iron-ons! The manufacturers apply finishes/starches that prevent the iron-on vinyls from sticking if it's left unwashed. Not fun!

And, if you're wondering how they were received...these pillows sold out before lunchtime, so if you're running a gift table be sure to make plenty! I priced mine at $8 for the set, but I'm sure you could get $10 a piece. They would also be a fun team bonding project pre-summer camp for the team to do together. I think I would just have all the cases made, the inserts made but unstuffed, and the iron-ons ready to be applied. That way the girls could stuff the pillows (which is kinda fun!), hand stitch the end closed, then iron on the design the way they wanted it.