Not just bedding anymore

I had a friend ask about pillowcase dresses the other day, and now I have rediscovered how much I LOVE making them! It's been slow around here, I only sold 3 carriers today, and it's the 4th of July weekend. Hell, I'll finish my work later............. So, the pillowcase dress. The idea is that you can re-use (which I love!) an old pillowcase (the older they are, the prettier they tend to be) and turn it in to a cute little dress. The nice thing about them, is that the collar is adjustable, so when the length no longer works, you can wear it as a shirt with jeans or capris. Fabulous!

Here are 3 that I whipped up last night:
This strawberry fabric was some great material from my grandmother's stash. I have about 6 yards, so I wasn't afraid to "waste" it if it didn't turn out. Next time, I think I'll leave the extra white on top and have the strawberries all the way to the bottom. I adjusted the length with a stylized hem, since my little girl is still only 6 months old.




This fabric was from the remnant section, and is a light-weight eyelet for summer. I added a little ribbon and a bow to make it really pop. Plus, I LOVE black, red, and white together. It also matches a nice set of no-slip hair clips I made a few weeks ago!

This dress is gorgeous, with brown and blue together. LOVE! This is the dress I'm going to use in my tutorial.

This dress was made with 2 fat quarters and 1" brown grosgrain ribbon. I picked up the materials at Wal-Mart yesterday:


These items cost $6. The fat quarters were each $1, the ribbon was $1.97. Now, the ribbon is enough for at least 3 dresses, so you could feasibly make 3 of these for under $8. Not bad huh? You could also use an actual pillowcase or any fabric you have. A fat quarter is simply a piece of fabric (sold with the intention of using it for quilting) that is 18 inches x 21/22 inches. They are folded in flats like above, and are usually found on the end caps in a fabric store. They range from $1 and up, depending on the designer. Since a yard of fabric is typically 45" wide x 36 inches long, a fat 1/4 is 1/4 of a yard. You will need TWO fat 1/4's for each dress.

Start by unwrapping the fabric and laying them on top of one another with the good sides touching. You can make your dress the longway, or you can lay them horizontal and make a cute top.
Next, you are going to cut the armholes. The size and shape are completely up to you and depend on the age of your child. I like to cut in about 4" and curve it slightly into a J-shape. Do this on both sides.


Next, you will sew both side seams, with the good sides still facing in. You can hand sew or machine stitch these dresses. The ideal would be to surge the side seams to prevent fraying during laundering, but a straight stitch will still hold well.


Folding the armhole edges in (you are still working on the wrong side of the fabric), sew the fabric over and roll hem the edges. You will fold over twice, so that the raw edge ends up completely on the inside of the hem.


Do the same roll hem (folding over twice and sewing) along the top edge.


This next step can be tweaked a little, depending on the width of the ribbon used for the top ties. My ribbon is 1" wide, so the casing for the ribbon needs to be this same width. Fold the top over (working on the wrong side again) and sew along the same line of stitching that you just sewed for your rolled hem.



Now you have the casing for your ribbon ties:


Cut the desired length of ribbon (I used 18 inches). You will need two equal-length pieces. The length is a personal preference, depending on how broad the child's shoulders are, and how much extra ribbon you want hanging down after tying the bows. Pin a safety pin to one end of the ribbon and feed it through the top casing.


Almost finished! Now, you can leave the ribbon ends straight across, or cut a V into the center like I have done. Cutting on an angle is also pretty. You can heat-seal the ends by exposing it to a flame for a few seconds. This will prevent fraying.

Tie the ends in a bow and VOILA! You have a really cute pillowcase dress!

A slight variation on this, would be to cut the sides at an angle, so the finished product has more of an A-line look to it. You can also adjust the width to add a little more flounce to the dress.