100% cotton pillowcases. Remember those freshly washed sheets and cases from your childhood? None of that sticky and clammy polyester for me!

I’ve been collecting (and sometimes using) older cotton pillowcases for 30 years or so. These were acquired a few weeks ago and although I haven’t washed and pressed them yet, they have some interesting embellishments that I thought I’d share.

This set has just a small line of pink embroidery and crocheted edging. Not so fancy that you’d be afraid to actually USE them, but very tasteful.

This is one of the first sheets that I remember that weren’t all white, that were actually printed with a colored pattern. It was still 100% cotton though. Now we expect our sheets to come in a rainbow of colors and prints, but when I was growing up all the sheets in our household were cotton and were WHITE.

Here’s an edging I haven’t seen before in pillowcases. Blue appliqued squares in a diagonally set checkerboard arrangement.

Here’s some more blue! the edging on the top case is made with blue and white intertwined rickrack, with edging crocheted with a variegated blue and white cotton thread.