Pillowcase Edging Crochet Tutorial: Shells and Flowers

Hey everyone, it's Deja from crochetrack.com. Today we are going to put this edging on a pillowcase. You can also substitute a handkerchief, a blanket, whatever you may like. This was actually a real request and they wanted a shell edging and a flower edging. So you're going to get two parts. You're going to get just the shell edging first and then I'm going I'm going to show you how to add the flower to the shell so you can add both in one go. You usually can't do just the flower by itself, you kind of need a background with it, so that one, that's why I added it onto the shell. But, we are using crochet thread, and this one is from the Kit Curio, so you'll see that in the material list. I'll show you the kit in just a second, and it will pierce, it comes with two crochet hooks, one that pierces the holes, and helps pierce the holes to work into the pillowcase, and then a rounded crochet hook to do the rest of it. So I'll show you that right after I finish showing you this. So, we've wrapped and crocheted our pillowcase, and I'll get to all of that stuff and what you're going to do to get ready in just a second. Okay, so before I get started on making my actual pillowcases, I just wanted to go over one important point. If you're using brand new pillowcases, these are brand new, and before you begin crocheting or doing anything, wash them first. So if you're not a sewer... You probably don't know that a lot of times they don't pre-shrink this stuff. So like when you buy towels and they fold perfectly before you wash them and you wash them and the ends curl, it's the fabric just shrinking up on you. So before you go and put all the time into making these beautiful pillowcases, wash them on some nice... warm or hot water if you have white and dry them very well so that you can get them pre-shrunk so you don't crochet this beautiful edging and then it shrinks and gets all crumpled and weird looking. So that is just one fast tip. So I'm going to go throw these in the wash and then we'll get started. Okay, I washed my pillowcases, and I did a quick iron to them so that they'll be relatively flat. Now the next step, because I am working from a kit, at least for adding the first row of crochet that I need to add, I'm using the Edgit crochet hooks, and you'll see a separate review on these. So these are called Edgit. There'll be a link, so if you want to get some of these, you can see down below where to get them. But to start this first row, what it wants me to do is to sew. So I'm going to have to get my sewing machine out. Hopefully you have a sewing machine. If not, there's also another project, or a product, called Edgeridoo. So if you go to edgeridoo.com, it's a hole-punching tool, so you can manually punch the holes. But if you have a sewing machine, if you're doing... Doing this on a blanket, you can serge the ends and you'll get the serging edge, but if you're doing it like me on a pillowcase, all you need is a zigzag stitch. So you want the zigzag to be about a quarter inch from the edge, so where you want your hole is about a quarter inch from the edge, so the inside part of your zigzag, and you want the zigzags to be each hole about an eighth of an inch apart, so you may have to Adjust. Your settings on your sewing machine to get that eighth of an inch, so be sure to have a test piece of fabric when you do that. Don't do it right onto your pillowcase until you get that measurement. It's not super important. I'm going to try to make... Edgings that won't use huge stitch repeats, so if you want them a little bit further apart You don't get too exact. We're gonna. We're gonna make it so that you can make this edging without minimal headaches, so go ahead and get your sewing machine out and Start that zigzag stitch. I'm gonna put it in mind, and then I'll show you what we have and then we'll move on from there Okay, put the zigzag sewing on the edges of my pillowcases and you can see that i have two different widths i just wanted to show you the difference i have an electric machine and it throws an error if i don't have yarn or yarn if i don't have thread on either my spool or through the needle so i also realized that if you don't have an electric you just have a manual You could just do a straight stitch, because you really just need the hole. You don't need the thread in here. But I had to do it with thread, otherwise my machine won't work. There's no way to override it. So I did two different thicknesses. This was like a 5 and this was a 2. And it got me closer to the edge, so this is about a quarter inch from the edge. And I'm going to be using the further away hole, because I want to cover all of this thread. And when I start crocheting, it's going to cover all of the thread. So even though I did it in white, Or, I did it in white to match the pillowcase, but I'm hoping that most of it's going to get covered with the yarn. Okay, so the first thing I'm going to do is put a slipknot on my hook with the crochet thread. And that's how we're going to join our yarn to our pillowcase. Start with your slipknot, so you have the tension hook. Then, I'm going to start at one of my seams, which is my preference. I'm hoping that the Ends will weave in better or be hidden better with the seam. So remember we're going farthest away from the edge. That's the hole that we want to go into. So I'm going to start at that very first hole that's right to the left of my seam because I'm heading that way. So I'm not going to cross over my seam just yet. So I'm going to put my hook right through that hole. And it's going to take a little bit of force because this is a lot thicker than your sewing needle. So you can use like a really huge sewing needle to make these holes if you want to in the beginning. But I'm just going to go ahead and use a little bit of force to get through those holes. So I'm going to yarn over and I'm going to pull that back through the hole. And it's going to take a little bit of work again to come back through. And then I'm going to pull it up so it's nice and tall, and sorry, I'm back in the frame here. Pull it up nice and tall so it's not going to squish. My fabric when I do the single crochet, so this first one because I have the slipknot, that one's nice and short, so I'm going to yarn over and pull through both, so that's my very first single crochet, then I'm going to go into my next hole, so here's the next one right here, I'm going to push a little bit to get through, grab my thread, Come back through. You can see I'm kind of just wiggling to get back, so I don't want to pull a bunch of threads when I do it. Again, I'm going to pull it up nice and high. So as you're going, it's going to pull a little bit from the previous stitch. Just kind of grab it and straighten it out for you. One thing that might work a little bit better is if we poke our holes with this hook before we start going. Okay, so I tried poking holes a little bit ahead so that I could work a few more stitches. So, when you're pulling this through, it seems sometimes it's grabbing some of the threads with it because the hook is so pointy, but hopefully that shouldn't make too much of a difference. We should be able to just cut that and keep going. I might try maybe poking on the next pillowcase, poking a hole with this and then using the other hook to actually pull the thread through to see if that's going to help at all. But what we're going to do for this first round is just continue poking the holes, grabbing our thread, pulling it up as high as possible so that we don't get the squished fabric look. Pull it up nice and high. We're getting a little bit of squished fabric, but if we keep it consistent, then we shouldn't be able to tell once we get all the way around. So if you get a little bit of squish, don't worry about it. Just keep working around the entire pillowcase in this fashion, making your single crochets, and then we'll come back and we'll work on the next round. Alright, I've worked all the way around my pillowcase, and I've gotten a little bit better at figuring out how to use the pointy hook, so I have a few more stitches left so I can go over with you what I've found out. So you can see on the opposite side, my stitches are a little wonky looking, not too well spaced, and then it gets a little better on the side that I've figured out some stuff. So... When you're working with this pointy hook, Instead of, because I was getting caught on the little fine threads of the pillowcase, so instead what I was doing, I was going in, and I was going in just enough to the shaft to grab my thread. Instead what I'm going to do is push it just about as far as it'll go, so push it until it kind of doesn't want to give any more, and it's going to open up your hole a little bit wider so you can pull the thread through without getting stuck as much. So you might want to bring it right over the top of where it's supposed to go, and then when you pull it through, you can see I did not get stuck that time. And it's kind of self-repairing almost, because it starts to close back up if you start pulling on your case, because it's not punching a bigger hole, it's just pushing your threads apart so you can pull your needle, or not your needle, but your pointy hook through. So, I'm trying to get right in the middle of my stitch so that they look better spaced apart. And I found also, sometimes I do get stuck, so I just push through again a little bit more. Oops, missed it. It takes quite a learning curve. I'm also noticing that I should have stitched a little bit closer to the edge. I'm kind of creating a little fold over with the excess pillowcase because trying to pull it as tall as the pillowcase is a little difficult. But it's probably, it doesn't, like I can't even really tell the difference. It doesn't make a big difference, but I know it's there. It's a little bit fatter, but that's okay to me. But if you have a raw edge, then it might work well. The deep stitching like I have here, you see how it's kind of folded over here? So if you have a deep stitch and you have a raw edge, maybe flannel, this could work because it'll help fold it over when you crochet into it and create a nice edge to it. So that is something you can try if you have a raw edged item that you're putting a border on. I'm going to keep on doing these last couple of stitches. The pointy hook, you'll see that I have a seam here. The pointy hook will, because this is sewn down, so I have to go through all of the layers, or I can cut it if I want to. But I found that the pointy hook does go through very thick layers. So when I was doing my seam over on this side, you can see I punched all the way through this, probably like four layers of seam. So if you need to, you can. I think it said in the booklet that accompanies this hook that you can get through four or six layers of flannel at one time, so it's definitely able to get through some very thick material. So once I get to the end of my round, I have some double up stitching here so I need to make sure I get the right spot. Once I get to the end of the round, I'm going to join the round, and then I'm going to switch to the not-pointed, or the rounded edge hook, I guess, or the rounded tip hook to do the next round, and the next round's going to be just basic single crochet, because what we need to do to make our shell edging is to get to the correct number of stitches around, so we did not care How many stitches, so this is, I'm trying to get through all those layers, you can see I got through all the layers there. We did not count how many stitches we did around here, we didn't say, or I didn't say, make sure you have 240 stitches by the time you finish your pillowcase. This is, you know, difficult enough getting through all of these layers and working through. So what we're going to do for round two is start counting our stitches. And increasing, increasing, so that we have a multiple of six. We need a multiple of six to make even shells. One thing I noticed in the book is that it doesn't have a pattern repeat. It doesn't tell you how many multiples or multiple of what you should have for each pattern that it gives you, which I'm not a real big fan of, because then you'll end up having a gap where you don't have... Your pattern work so if you're like making a flower and you don't know how many stitches you're supposed to have between each flower Then you're gonna have a gap somewhere. So it's not a huge deal, but I like to make sure that Everything is evenly spaced My last stitches have to get through all of these layers So with this I just kind of twist and push till I get through This is my thickest layer yet. There we go. Got it. And then I'm gonna join up here Push this through a little more. So you can see, it takes a little extra work to do this. So be patient. Alright, all of these little threads you can just cut at the end. But I'm going to join up with my very first stitch. I'm going to go right through the top two loops and do a slip stitch. So I pull through, and then I pull through this one. And then I'm going to tighten that down. Now I'm going to switch hooks. So, cap on that one. Now I've got the new one that is rounded, so I don't have to worry about stabbing myself because that other one is very sharp. So now we're going to go all the way around, but what I'm going to do beforehand, and my stitches are going to be different from your stitches, so I'm not going to count them in front of you. I'm going to go through and I'm going to count my stitches so I can see how close of a multiple of six I have. So if I have, you know, 242 stitches... I need four more extra stitches to get to 246, which would be a multiple of six. So to do that, I'm going to just add in increases in four different spots around my pillowcase. So that way, at the end of round one, I will have a multiple of six. So I'm going to just start doing some single crochets, and then I'm going to show you how to increase. So if you've already done your math and you're back. What you're going to do is you're going to chain one, and then you're going to go right into that same stitch that you just slip-stitched from, and single crochet. So you go into both loops, pull through, and single crochet. And you're going to do this all the way around. So you go into both loops, and the both loops are sitting right on top of your pillowcase right now, because that is where the last row was made, was made around it. So they're pretty easy to get under. Pretty easy to make. You can see it's nice and lifted right here. I go right under both loops, yarn over, pull up the loop, and single crochet. So... Once I figure out how many increases I need to do, so the most that you're going to have to do is five increases, because multiple of six, if you have six already, then you don't need to do any increases. But if you're off by five stitches, you're going to need to do five increases. So choose just five random spots, doesn't matter how many stitches in between, just don't do them all next to each other because they'll be really noticeable and they'll create kind of like a little fan. You don't want that. So we're going to put them in different spots. So I'm going to start right here and put an increase. So what I do to do that is I do a single crochet in my next stitch. And then I go back into that same stitch and I do another single crochet. So when we do that, it creates two single crochets and increases my stitch count by one. But since I'm not doing them all in a row, all right next to each other, it's not going to be noticeable when I start. I'm going to do a few more and then I'll... Hold it up and see if you can tell where the increase was. Make sure you're only doing one for each stitch if your stitch count is good. Okay, so now if I hold it up, it's very difficult to see the increase. Let me go a little closer. You can point it out if you're really staring, but if it's far back, you can't really tell. So that's how we're going to space out our increases if you need any. Just count all your stitches. Which is, the easiest way what you can do... As long as you don't get off in your counting, is count the little V here that's made in there. You can either count straight on top and count your stitches, but they're pretty small, so you can use the Vs down below, because each one of these Vs is attached to, let me move this tail so it's a little easier to see, each little V is attached to one stitch. So count your V's all the way around and see how many you have when you get back. So just mark off that first one or say to the left of the seam and then to the right of the seam. So you can make sure you don't count one extra at the end. And then see how many you have. Make sure it's a multiple of six. And then we will go on to round three where we create our shell. So just keep going around single crocheting. Add your increases if you need to. And then we'll meet up. Sorry. I've gone all the way around the pillowcase with the single crochet. When I counted, I was three stitches short of a multiple of six, so I increased in three of my stitches. Now I'm just going to join my round with a slip stitch in the first single crochet that I made. And then we're going to start our shell pattern. I'll just do my slip stitch. I'm going to start off with a single crochet, so I'm going to chain one, And then I'm going to single crochet right back into that same stitch that I slip stitched from. Then we're going to start the shell. So I'm going to skip my next two stitches and I'm going to double crochet five times in the third stitch. So skip two, double crochet five times in that third stitch. This is a very easy Basic pattern, so you'll be able to do this while watching TV, so I have to say, it's so small, it's hard to see. If you've never worked with crochet before, it needs a nice bright light so you can see your stitches because they are so tiny. Alright, and then we're going to skip our next two stitches, one and two, and single And then we'll crochet into our third, and this anchors our shell on the other side. Now I'm going to skip another two, and I'm going to double crochet five times in that third stitch. So that's what our pattern is going to be all the way around. We're going to do five double crochets, then we're going to skip two stitches, and single crochet in the third. And skip two again and do another five double crochets. So keep doing that all the way around to the very last stitch and then we'll meet up for our joining and how to weave in your ends. Okay I just finished my very last shell and you'll see that I have two Stitches left so I'm going to skip those two and then I'm going to join my round with a slip stitch in the very first single crochet that I made. Pull through, tighten that down, and then I'm going to fasten off my scissors around here. My scissors are not so long, so I'm going to pause that for a second. But you can see that I finished the shell. This is on my tail hanging out here. But I finished the shell all the way around, and it's looking very nice. That's the great thing about crochet thread. That's why you use crochet thread instead of, like, a lace weight or a fingering yarn, because it's very crisp, it's very stiff, so it will give you this nice edging without having to block it. If I did this in lace weight, it would probably be all floppy and weird looking, and I would have to block it every time I wash this. With a crochet thread, it gives you a nice, pretty sheen, it's nice and stiff, and it should look good after I wash the pillowcase. So that is the end of the shell tutorial. So if you just want a shell on your pillowcase, then you're set to go. Next, I'm going to show you how to add a flower in between each shell. Okay, so to begin our flowers, we're going to put a slip knot on our hook and join up with a slip stitch into our previous round that we just made. So for this round, we're going to be slip stitching pretty much in the back loop only for all of the shells, and then we're going to make our flower right in between each shell. That's going to be just another version of the shell that we just did. So I'm joining right at that very first single crochet of the round, I'm going to go in that back loop. So where I joined, there is still a little bit of a stitch left, so I'm going to put my hook right through the back loop only. So if you're not familiar with front and back loop, you have a... A piece of loop in the front here and a piece of loop in the back, if you turn it sideways you'll see that it looks like a V. So the loop that's facing away from you, the one that's in the back, is your back loop, so I'm going to pull up a loop after I yarn over and I'm going to pull that through the loop on my hook and I'm going to tighten that one down. For the rest of the round, as you do your slip stitches, you don't have to tighten them down, you don't have to be careful if they're loose enough, because you're not going to be working into them. So you just kind of go ahead and do them however you like. So you're going to be doing a split stitch in the next five DCs of this shell. So you just grab that back loop, yarn over, pull through, and then pull through the loop on your hook. I've never been cool enough to do that all in one step. I always have to stop and kind of re-get ready to pull it through the loop on my hook. So you see I kind of put my hook in, I yarn over, I pull through, and then I kind of push, and then I pull through the loop on my hook. Just not cool enough to do it all in one step. I always get caught. So I always have to turn my hook down so I can pull through easily. So if you're having trouble getting through that loop, do what I do. Push it out and then turn your hook straight down so the hook's facing your stitch and then pull through. It'll be a lot easier. So now we are at our single crochet that's between each of our shells and we're going to start doing our flower. And we're actually going to do five double crochets in that single crochet, just kind of like we did for here. Except we're going to do something right at the end that's going to create more of a flower look. So we have one, two, yarn over, insert right back into the same stitch. Yarn over, pull through two. Alright, now to create the actual little flower looking kind of spot, because if we just start doing our next slip stitch it's going to kind of look like a squished version of this. We want it to kind of cup up like a flower more. Okay, so to make the flower, what we're going to do is we're going to come back around to our first double crochet that we made. So as you can see, I've got the loop on my hook, I'm holding on to it, I'm bringing my hook to the back of my stitches, and I'm putting it through the top two loops of the first double crochet I made. Then I'm going to yarn over, I'm going to pull through. And again, I'm horrible at going straight through the slip stitch, but I'm making a slip stitch here. So I gotta grab it and hold on to it and pull it through and that's going to create kind of like a little poofy flower blossom here. Kind of squished it all the way to the back. Then from there, I'm just gonna start slip stitching again. So I come back over here to this next DC. You can see everything's kind of in the way at the moment. Just push your flower to the front and then double crochet, not double crochet, slip stitch crochet into that stitch. So again, we slip stitch across in the back loop only. As you can see, I push and then I turn and then I pull through. If you are cool enough to do it all in one step, teach me how to do it. Leave me a comment. Alright, so now I'm back over here for my next flower. So again, I'm going to... Yarn over and start double crocheting five times. And I just finish those five double crochets and then I'm going to come back around to that first double crochet I kind of hold on to this and I'm going to get these little kind of flower buds all the way around. So I'm going to keep on slip stitching in the five double crochets. I'm going to make my flower buds and at the end of the round I'll meet up and join our works so you can see how to weave in Alright, I've gotten all of my little rosettes all the way around, and I'm right at the end of where I joined. But you'll see I have kind of a gap, I need to put a rose right there. So where I joined in the beginning was that very first single crochet, I did that slip stitch. So I'm gonna do my final rose in that same spot. So I'm going to put my hook right in that back loop where I joined, oh yeah, where I started joining both. Then just kind of watch out for all my tails so I don't pull those through my loops. I'm going to do my five double crochets. I'm starting to speak now. And then I'm going to do my join here in the first one. Still can't do my slip stitch all in one step. So I kind of hold onto it while I'm pulling the other loop through. And then I'm going to join with a slip stitch in that very first join. Pull that tight. Make sure your row is in the front. You want to do that around too as you're working those slip stitches and go to do the next slip stitch next to it. Just kind of pull your rows forward and you'll be all set to go. Then I'm going to fasten off, weave in the ends. So we have just a couple of ends to weave in. And you're going to want to use a pretty small yarn needle because this is such fine yarn thread, crochet thread, whatever you want to call it. We'll start with the green here. You do the same thing for both colors. The red will probably be a little bit easier to hide because you can go inside of these roses and kind of go in all different directions inside of a rose. So for the green, we're just going to start going through the back whatever you can fit your needle through. So these stitches are very small and tight so it gets a little difficult so you want to make sure you have a small needle Even if you have to You can use a small crochet hook to weave in your ends. So if you need to, you can take your crochet hook and kind of go back through your stitches, and then grab your yarn and pull it through to help weave in. So if your yarn needle is too big and you don't want to go buy another one, that's another way that you can weave in your ends. You just have to do a couple stitches at a time with your hook. I'm just going to go backwards and grab the yarn and pull it through. But I'm just going to go back and forth, creating a nice tight join. And then once you get it weaved in enough, you can cut your ends. I'm going to weave in the rest, and then we'll check out the finished project. Everything done is done. It did us. Let's do a pretty edging.