Bean sprout husks pillow

When my pregnant friend asked me if I could make a bean sprout husks pillow for her little one, I couldn't find any reason to reject.

A bean sprout husks pillow is made of dried bean sprout husks. The chinese believed that placing this pillow across a newborn's chest or tummy will provide a sense of comfort and security like a hand. It is very lightweight and porous so definitely safe for newborns.

I purchased a bag of bean sprout husks from the supermarket for 30cents. The biggest difficulty I faced was separating the bean sprouts from husks. The damp husks were stuck on my fingers all the time! So i tried placing the whole bag into the freezer before I started the separation process, which did the trick!

After that I wash the husks clean with cold and hot water. Spread it out thinly onto newspaper for 1-2 days to dry it and get rid of the smell. This was what I got!

Dried bean sprout husks

After that I proceeded to make the pillow and cases. Embroidered her baby's name at her request. :) Love it!

Bean Sprout Husks Pillow Set

The reason why I bought my machine - embroidery! Allows me to customise my items.

Machine embroidered name

Baby Pillow Cases

During lunar new year visiting, my cousin request for a baby pillow case cause she couldn't find a suitable one in stores. I made her 2 cases! One in cotton with tiger prints since her little girl was born in the year of the Tiger, and the other in fleece with rainbow prints. I also used this cloth for her burp cloth given last year. :) Both fabrics we bought from fabrics.com last March.

I realised that pillow cases are really easy to make! Shall briefly jot down the steps for easy reference in future.
1. Measure the existing pillow case. For the case I'm using-->
Exterior: Front-15" by 6.5", Back-14" by 6.5", Interior flap: 3".

2. Add 0.5" allowance on each side, mark and cut the fabric
3. Fold in 0.25" on side of the fabric (where the case flaps are), fold again so that raw seams are hidden nicely, pin and sew. This is how it should look like after sewing, great to prevent fraying.
4. Mark your sewing guideline using tailor's chalk or erasable marker (shown in pink!)

4. Place fabrics on wrong side together. Decide how deep the flap should be. I left mine 3" deep. Pin fabrics to prevent movement while sewing.

5. Sew along the sewing guideline you marked.

6. Serge (or zig zag) the seams to prevent it from fraying.

7. Flip it over. You're done~ :) 

The back view looks like this.. 

Did you notice the different overlapping for the case opening?