sewing a pillowcase with my serger

for a while now i've wanted to make fun, brightly colored pillowcases. but there's always so much stuff on my list of want-to-dos that i wasn't getting to it. also, i finally got a serger! yay, i've wanted one for so long, but they're so intimidating with all their threads and needles and dials and so forth. i found a serger that was highly recommended as a beginner's machine - not too fancy with too many bells and whistles but just right. it's the Brother 1034D 3/4 Lay-In Thread Serger. even after i got the machine i was a little scared to use it, so i decided a pillowcase was the perfect first project and i just needed to jump right in and try it. i had some of my pantone fabric left, but not enough for a whole pillowcase so i grabbed a bit of the pink plaid fabric that i have earmarked for a future dress to make, but i can afford to spare a square. i grabbed an existing pillowcase from the linen closet to use as my template for cutting. i followed the serger manual to thread the machine and was ready to go. i stitched a few lines on some scrap fabric which went well so i went right ahead to making the pillowcase. sergers are so amazing, it actually trims your fabric as you stitch if you'd like it to - wow. first, i stitched the pink plaid pieces to the pantone pieces, then with wrong sides together stitched up 3 sides of the pillowcase and finally around the open edge to finish it off. i could have been finished then but i went over to the regular sewing machine and zig zag topstitched a hem line (i can't even remember why i felt the need to do that) and i topstitched over the seam where the pantone fabric meets the pink plaid. and now i have this awesomely fun and bright pillowcase that i absolutely love (and it's long enough to fit my pillow perfectly.)