When the time finally came to give Rebecca her African Flower Blanket for her birthday, I was adamant that it be properly gift-wrapped. A present that she'd seen around the house for the last several months, and she even did some work on (here), really had to be wrapped, in order to create at least a little sense of anticipation.
What better way to gift-wrap a blanket than in a pillow case? I took her favorite pillow case, and spruced it up a bit.
I used this wonderful tutorial by You Go Girl! for crocheting edgings on pillow cases, suggested by a reader a while back (thank you Margo!). It's a very quick, clever method. In the past I've always crocheted the edging separately, then hand-stitched it onto the fabric. In this tutorial, the edging is crocheted directly onto the pillow case, on a blanket stitch foundation row. The blanket stitching look must appeal to you, of course, because the stitching is part of the edging, and very visible; in the past, I'd always made the stitching blend with the fabric as much as possible.
Personally, I love the look of the blanket stitch, and how the pillow case turned out. I suspect my boys probably aren't into crocheted pillow cases, or I'd be sprucing theirs up, too!
