Make your own Koinobori pillowcase - free tutorial

Some of you may wonder what a koinobori or 鯉のぼり means? You may have seen them for real while on a trip to Japan or on travel photos. They are windsocks in a shape of a carp (or koi) that are flown during the Kodomo no Hi 子供の日 which is the children's day in Japan.  I wish I could be there when the sky is filled with colourful flying Carps!

I will not expand on the koinobori topic despite the fact that they have been my source of inspiration for many of my products such as a koinobori-shaped pencil case and a fish-shaped drawstring bag and now, a koinobori-shaped pillowcase.

In order to make this pillowcase you will need:

- one white 100% cotton pillowcase

- a small piece of plain coloured fabric  

- a knife to cute the freezer paper  

- a small piece of wadding

- some black and silver fabric paints (I do like Pebeo brand)

 - some plastic coated freezer paper (I recommend Reynolds)

- a paint brush

- a sewing machine 

  

First step - Reproduce or print on a A4 paper the pattern for the fish tail and fin (see below). Then cut out the pattern for one fin and one fish tail. In the fabric cut two pieces for the tail and two pieces for the fin. 

Place the two pieces of fabric for the fin and the two pieces of fabric for the tail onto some wadding. Pin and stitch around the outside leaving a 5mm seam allowance. Trim as much wadding as you can (photo below on the left) prior to snip into the seam allowance around any curves (photo below, top right). Turn each shape right side out. Then stitch the spiny rays on the fin and on the tail (photo below, bottom right).

Second step - Attach the fin and the tail to the pillowcase. For this, cut the whole length of the pillowcase opposite to the opening of the pillow case as shown on the illustration below. Then turn the pillowcase inside out and pin the tail. Stitch the whole side length of the pillowcase to close it again. To attach the fin, remove some of the stitches at the top of the pillowcase to create an aperture for the fin as shown by the letters C and D on the illustration below. Insert the fin and stitch it to the pillowcase. Turn the right side out.

Third step - Make the fish eye. With a compass (or anything with a round side such as a glass) make three circles on the freezer paper as shown on the picture below (Top left photo). Cut out the inside circle and the outside circle but leaving a small stripe of paper between the outer circle and the inside circle. (This will help to keep the circle centred in the middle.) Take the shinny/plastic coated side of the freezer paper towards the fabric and iron it on a flat surface to 'fix' it to the fabric. Then with a small scissors, remove the two small stripes. Iron again to make sure that the freezer paper is adherent all around to the fabric. Place a piece of cardboard under the area you are about to paint, so no paint will pass through all the layers of your pillowcase. Then start to apply some black paint in the outer circle and then some silver paint in the inside circle. Leave to dry for at least one hour or until dry to the touch.

Finally, once the paint is dried, peel off the freezer paper and iron on 'cotton setting' for at least 5 minutes for the paint to 'fix' to the fabric. You can use a tea towel between the pillowcase and your iron as the paint may slightly stain your iron if the paint you applied is very thick. Et voila, your koinobori pillowcase is ready!