How to Embroider a Pillowcase Valentine

comments (4) January 29th, 2009

Jennifer Stern, contributor

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Romantic Valentines Day sayings embroidered on the hems of my pink pillowcases.

As I embroidered these traditional sayings, I thought about my Valentine and a few thoughtful and more personal messages came to mind...Im going to stitch up a set for him.

Use the built-in lettering in your embroidery machine.

Romantic Valentine's Day sayings embroidered on the hems of my pink pillowcases.

Photo: Jen Stern

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Embroidering the hem of a pillowcase with a romantic notion quickly transforms a plain pillowcase into the ultimate Valentine. In my quest to come up with Valentine crafts, I asked my friends and family for ideas (I love doing that because I'm always amazed at the stuff they come up with!). One of my friends suggested embroidering the hems of pillowcases with popular sayings like: "Let me call you Sweetheart" and "I Love You." It was definitely a "why didn't I think of that?" moment. I decided that I needed to do a mini how-to on how to embroider a hem of a premade pillowcase. The best pillowcases to use for this project are the ones that have a plain hem that's simply folded under and sewn down. I have a pair of pink pillowcases that have been tucked in the back of my linen closet that are perfect...so I didn't even need to run out and buy new ones!

If you are going to give these pillowcases as a Valentine's Day gift, it's worth the time to take the hem apart before you embroider your love note. That way, you can fold the hem back under and sew it in place to conceal the bobbin thread. (When I'm machine-embroidering ready-made items, I always think about how the inside, or wrong side, will look when I'm done. If the back of the embroidery doesn't have to show, that's a real bonus!)

So, I started by using my trusty seam ripper to take the hem apart. Only take out the "front" side of the pillowcase, unless you are going to embroider a saying all the way around the hem.

This hem was very loosely sewn together, making it really easy to take out with a seam ripper.

Find the center point of the hem, and mark it with a line perpendicular to the folded edge of the hem.

Make sure you don't mark the part of the hem that gets folded back to the wrong side—your embroidery will end up on the inside of the pillowcase if you do.

Hoop cutaway stabilizer and use 505 Temporary Adhesive Spray to stick the hem into the hoop. Since my saying was longer than the width of the hoop, I positioned the lettering vertically. To get the hem into the hoop straight, I matched the fold in the hem with the side edge of the hoop—that made it really easy to see if I was straight.

Another bonus of using the very edge of the hoop to embroider the first pillowcase is that you can embroider the second one without rehooping another piece of stabilizer. (This is especially nice if you're using a huge hoop that needs a lot of stabilizer!)

If you have a baste-in-the-hoop feature, use it to double-check how square you are.

My basting stitches run evenly with the side of the hoop—I'm happy.

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posted in: embroidery, pink, valentine, Embroidered pillowcase

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Comments (4)

JenniferStern writes: Thanks guys...I have a set of embroidered pillowcases for sleepover guests and lucky charms for Saint Patty's Day too!
Posted: 9:36 am on February 20th

Missmousie writes: Thank you so much for the detailed information and pictures. The pillowcase looks beautiful. I have been looking for good instructions regarding the ME and how to place the fabric. Your instructions are excellent.
Posted: 4:18 pm on February 15th

MeredithP writes: Excellent tutorial on ME on pillowcases. I'm guilty of not taking the hems out, but it really looks nice. Thanks!
Posted: 7:00 pm on February 9th