Pillowcase dress tutorial- Style 2: "Party Girl"

Like "The Classic," this dress was made from a pillowcase, and for less than $2! The big side bow at the neck is perfect for a party princess.

You will need:
- a pillowcase
- coordinating fabric for the bow and hem band (1/3 yard)
- coordinating thread
- safety pin

Steps:
1. Measure your little girl from her armpit to about the knee (I usually go a bit longer because I try to make it to last 2 summers!).
2. Fold your pillowcase lengthwise, and cut a j-shaped section from the top (closed) end, with the bottom of the j starting at the distance you just measured from the bottom (open) end of the pillowcase. This will be the armhole. The j should extend about 3-4" into the fabric horizontally, then continue up to the top vertically (see first photo below).
3. Cut a diagonal line along the non-folded side, starting about 2" into j shape of armpit and extending towards hem (open end of pillowcase). This helps give the dress some taper along the sides, otherwise I found it to be too boxy. 4. Cut 6 inch band of coordinating fabric to width of fabric. Fold over long raw edges 1/4 inch. Press. Fold in half. Press. Align along bottom hem of dress, and stitch into place near top of band. Trim excess. (Sorry! I must have forgotten to take a picture of this step!)
5.Sew side seems of dress with a straight stitch. Reinforce with a zig zag for good measure.
6. Fold the armhole area over 1/4 inch. Press. Fold 1/4 inch again, press again. 7. Sew along folded edge to finish armhole. Repeat for other side. 8. Fold the top edge (neck) of the dress over 1/4 inch. Press. Fold over again 2 inches and press. Sew, staying close to edge, leaving ends open. This will be the channel for your bow fabric. Repeat for other side. 9. Cut a 4.5 inch strip of your coordinating fabric, length the width of fabric.
10. Fold fabric in half, right sides facing. Press. Sew length to close strip using 1/4 seam allowance. 11. Use safety pin to invert strip tube you have just made, using fingers to work the safety pin out the other side. Press. 12. Tuck ends of strip in. Press.
13. Sew ends closed, and sew along all edges so that all of strip has a nice stitched edge as shown.
14. Attach safety pin to strip and use fingers to work it through the front channel until it emerges on other end. Continue through the back channel so that the 2 strip ends end up on the same side of the neck.

15. Measure 15 inches from end of each strip, then sew strip to dress as shown to secure. 17. Evenly distribute ruffles of neck. At other end of neck, sew dress to strip, arranging so that top part is shorter than the bottom, as shown. This will help the dress to sit flat on the neck.

Put it on your little princess and tie a big bow! You are finished! Congratulations! I hope you have enjoyed the Pillowcase Dress Tutorial series. I would love to see a picture of your finished creations in my Flickr group. Have fun!

Pillowcase dress tutorial- Style 1: "The Classic"

I first learned about pillowcase dresses last summer, and loved the idea. This spring I found a selection of sweet vintage pillowcases at a local thrift store for only 29 cents a piece, and started thinking about the unlimited number of ways this sweet swatch of fabric could be transformed into an adorable outfit for my daughters.....and here is what I came up with.

I love the simplicity of this dress- not only in style, but also in fabrication! You can seriously make this up in about a half hour. It will probably take you longer to read my over-wordy instructions!

These pillowcase dresses will fit children from age 2-6. If made with an old pillowcase from home or a thrift store one like mine, this dress will cost only about $2 to make. Lord knows I am not in this hobby to save money (as my designer fabric stash will attest), but I must confess that my Scottish/Ukrainian genes vibrate in joy when I can make something adorable, and for cheap.

Want to make one? Here we go!

You will need:

- a pillowcase

- 2 pieces of 1/4" elastic, roughly 6" in length

- a package of coordinating bias tape, or make about 2.5 meters/yards of your own

- coordinating thread

- a safety pin

Steps:

1. Measure your little girl from her armpit to about the knee (I usually go a bit longer because I try to make it to last 2 summers!).
2. Fold your pillowcase lengthwise, and cut a j-shaped section from the top (closed) end, with the bottom of the j starting at the distance you just measured from the bottom (open) end of the pillowcase. This will be the armhole. The j should extend about 3-4" into the fabric horizontally, then continue up to the top vertically (see first photo below).
3.Cut a horizontal strip off the top (closed) end about 4" from the bottom (horizontal) segment of the j (see second photo below). Discard, or save scrap for a future vintage sheet quilt!

4. Cut a diagonal line along the non-folded side, starting about 2" into j shape of armpit and extending towards hem (open end of pillowcase). This helps give the dress some taper along the sides, otherwise I found it to be too boxy.

5. Unfold pillowcase and turn inside out. Sew side seems of dress with a straight stitch. Reinforce with a zig zag for good measure.

6.Take top raw edges and fold over 1/4". Press. Fold over 3/4". Press again.

7. Sew, staying close to edge, leaving ends open. This will be the channel for your elastic.

8.. Attach safety pin to elastic and use fingers to work it through the channel until it emerges on other end.

9. Sew ends of channel shut, being sure to catch elastic in stitching to secure. Fabric will gather around elastic.

10. Repeat with second elastic. Your dress should now look like this:

11. This next part might seem tricky if you have not worked much with bias tape, but is really quite easy once you play with it a bit. I will try make this as clear as possible- here goes. Take the bias tape and cut 2 pieces, each of 36" length. Look at the tape. You will notice that one folded side is slightly shorter than the other side. Unfold. Pin raw edge of the wider side along the wrong side of the raw edge of armhole from elastic to elastic. Ensure that length of bias tape is centered (i.e 18" on either side of the armhole center) and folds of tape are all facing down towards the pillowcase fabric. Sew along raw edges from elastic to elastic.
12. Refold bias tape. When you do so, the line you just stitched becomes covered and disappears, the center fold of the tape will cover the raw edge of the armhole, and the short folded side will be on the outside of the dress. Pin in place to secure.

10. Tuck in ends of bias tape, and start stitching along strap portion, short fold side up, to close the tape and make your strap. Continue over the elastic into the armhole area. Since the longer folded side is in the back, if you follow the edge along the front, you sound "catch" the back as well. Continue all the way to the end of the strap.

11. Repeat for second strap/armhole.

Congratulations! You are done!

I hope you enjoyed the Classic Pillowcase Dress tutorial. Come back next week to see my second pillowcase dress style! I'd love to see a picture of yoru dress in my Flickr group ;-)

A shirred dress for my BFF

It was my best friend Michele's birthday yesterday. She just had a big birthday bash on the weekend for her two lovely daughters, and I had blogged how I made them an artist purse and some shirred summer dresses. Well, Michele not-so-subtly asked if I made them in adult size, and mentioned "it is my birthday next week, you know......" So, my brain started whirling, I went shopping and found some sweet summer weight purple fabric (her favorite color), and here is what I came up with: Now firstly, let me impress upon you that I am a girl who loves to balance her gym activities with nachos, wine and chocolate- I am no model! But, I am pleased with how this dress turned out. Firstly, it is SO COMFORTABLE. And I really like the arm hole modification I made, so you don't have a pile of fabric bunching up in your pits, but it still rises high enough in the front to cover up your ta-tas :-) Maybe I will make another for me, and post a tutorial?

I am also at work on my next quilt, for our long time babysitter who will finish up with us this summer. It will be in reds, whites and blacks, her favorite colors (though admittedly not mine....). I made a sample block:
I had originally wanted to do a modified Bento Box design, but with only 3 colors in the mix, I thought the effect would likely be lost. Instead, I plan to alternate white and black solid blocks, framing the patterns inside. Off to the cutting mat I go!

Ruffle neck dress

I love this dress. I made it last summer for The Middle Child, but this year, it fits Last But Not Least (she's my sassy one). So sweet! The ruffle at the neck was the selling feature.

I used a pattern I bought here, and whipped it up in Alexander Henry's "jewel mobile," which I absolutely love. I bought enough to make something for ME to wear (if I ever get around to sewing clothes for myself). This is a benefit of having 2 girls- if you make the effort to sew a dress for the older one, you know it will get to be used again. Today was a beautiful day, so I shirked all the responsibilities of the "to do" list this afternoon and we took off to the park to enjoy the sunshine!

Sweet Summer Dresses

I get all nostalgic when I see smocked summer dresses- it makes me think of tubes tops from the '80s, jelly sandals and orange Popsicles! And shirring makes the cutest summer dresses.

I decided to make a set for the upcoming joint birthday bash for my goddaughter. Lauren, and her little sister, Serah. I chose Lila Tueller Santorini fabrics in purples, as that is their mom's favorite color. I more or less followed Heather Ross' tutorial on Martha Stewart found here. I made some modifications- I didn't backstitch for the shirring, and instead pulled on the elastic thread when done to make it bunch up even more. I also made my own version of straps, using some of the crochet trim I had picked up at my thrift store adventure. I then bound it, quilt style, along one edge. I was really happy with the end result! It just gives it a little "something something." It looks even cuter on...enter my daughter as a model......Next up- a crayon purse in matching colors! Stay tuned!