African Flower Pillowcase Free Instructions and Layout

I have a recent obsession: African Flower Motifs!  I'm not a huge fan of granny squares (and especially not a particular fan of connecting them!), but when I first saw an African Flower Motif, I was caught!  It is such a beautiful design, and works with any color combos to form an exquisite garden!  I decided to give one a try and used the African Flower Motif found here and her instructions are so clear and wonderful!  On that blog, she posted a photo of a really neat pillowcase made from these flower motifs.  I decided that that was to be my next project!  I started making motifs and figured I better research how many hexagons I need and how to attach them.  And that was when I ran into the problem!  I could NOT find instructions on how to make a pillowcase!  With the help of my pretty darn cool husband, I cracked the code!  This blog post will provide instructions on how my snazzy African Flower Pillowcase came to be!

You will need yarn (duh!) and a 16x16 insert pillow (mine came from Hobby Lobby- using my 40% off coupon, of course!).

Crochet 32 African Flowers (I did 32 different combinations, each with the last round being white).
Lay them out in the following pattern: (4, 3, 4, 5, 4, 5, 4, 3)

Once I had all 32 of my flowers, I found that there were several combinations that were my favorites. I wanted to be sure that these flowers were front and center! Looking at the photo above, (from left to right) the 3 center flowers on the 4th row, the 4 flowers on the 5th row, and the 3 center flowers on the 6th row are the main ones, so make sure they are pretty!

Attach the motifs with a slip stitch in the back.  This will ensure a small seam that will be only visible from the back.

You can see from the photo above how the 'puzzle' works!  The flowers that are overhanging will fold over and make the edges.  Make sure not to attach the two farthest edges because that is where you will slip the insert pillow in and out!  You can attach buttons to help keep the hole closed.

If you need me, I'll be off making one of these for every room in my house!

ENJOY!