Pillow Patrol

Our local Alaska Cooperative Extension Service office holds an annual event titled Pillow Patrol. They invite the public to come to their offices on a Saturday and sew pillow cases which are then donated to the foster care system. Children entering foster care can choose a pillow case that they can then take with them to use as both a pillow case and as a sack to carry their belongings in. 

When Viva and I did an extension service class last fall (making pajama bottoms) I learned about this event. When I saw posters at the quilt store reminding everyone that Pillow Patrol was coming up, I decided it was the perfect opportunity to use the flannel Kara and I stockpiled years ago to make baby blankets and burp cloths. We made quite a few burp cloths, but we never made flannel baby blankets to give away as gifts. Life was just too busy after the twins arrived! (We made two for the twins that were patterned on a blanket Bentley was given as a gift.)

Most people come to the Pillow Patrol event and make pillow cases there, but I knew it would not be very productive to take three young children to the event and try to work with them simultaneously. I opted to make pillow cases with them at home and take them to the event.

Viva and I learned how to make pillowcases when we attended an open sew night at the extension service, so we were ready to go into production. I cut the fabric into the required sizes (26-27"x40+" and 9-11"x40+"). I showed the children how to make a pillow burrito and pin it. This was the hardest step!

Then the children sewed the burrito of fabric. 

I pulled the inside of the burrito outside making a wrinkled mess of the nicely ironed fabric. I ironed the pillow case and trimmed off the sides. The children sewed the side and bottom of the pillowcase. 

I ironed the pillow case again and Voila! we had a finished product. The children each made 3-4 pillowcases and I made another dozen and a half. We ended up with 29 pillowcases to donate.

On Saturday January 11th Viva and I dropped the boys off at karate and then went over to the extension office to check out the Pillow Patrol event. We donated our pile of pillowcases. We sewed a couple of pillow cases. Viva was very excited because I allowed her to iron the pillow cases we made. 

Viva told me her mother would be surprised to hear I let her use an iron. She was right. Kara was quite skeptical of my decision. I very closely supervised the child! I recently burned myself while ironing, so I am quite aware of the danger. It took two weeks for the burn to heal! Nonetheless the children have to learn to iron sometime and are sewing machines any safer to use? We let them sew, why not let them iron?