How to make a pillowcase dress

There are so many things I love about summer, eating fresh veggies out of the garden, working outside, playing golf and making dresses. Wha? Did you say making dresses? Yup, I did.

Summer reminds me of little girls in soft flowy dresses, blowing puffy white dandelions into the wind. So, I decided to make my own flowy dress, and thanks to Pinterest, I was able to find an easy Pillowcase Dress tutorial that I will share with you!


Items needed:
3/4" fabric of choice
ribbon of choice
thread
scissors
iron
ironing board
sewing machine

 

 

I went to JoAnn Fabrics and picked out fabric.

 

The easiest way to measure the size was to find one of Kennady's dresses

to compare it to.  I placed her dress on top of the fabric and measured

the length, which was 21". Then I added 4" for seam allowance.

The total length measurement is 25" for this dress about 3T/4T.

I left the width the same width as the fabric came on the bolster.

Fold your salvages so they match up and cut your fabric in half.

Fold the long edge or salvage edge about 1/4" inch and iron.

 

Fold over again and iron.

Repeat this on the other side and do both sides on the other piece.

 

Sew the folded sides about 1/4".  

 

Now you are going to make the casing for the ribbon.

The casing will depend on the size of ribbon you have.

I have 5/8" ribbon.

I folded the top casing down about 1" and ironed.

Fold it down again and iron.

 

Sew toward the bottom of the casing.

 

Place right sides of your fabric together.

Measure 6" down from the top of your ribbon casing.

Place a pin in the fabric for your marker.

(You are making the arm hole.)

Pin the two pieces of fabric together.

 

Start sewing at your pin marker.

Sew as close to your hem as possible.

 

Iron your hem edges flat.

Repeat on the other side.

 

Now you will make the bottom hem.

Fold the bottom 1" and iron.

This works best over an ironing board.

You can slip the fabric around the narrow end

of the ironing board and fold the bottom edge down,

then just rotate the fabric in a circle around the ironing board

while folding and ironing.

(It worked for me!)

 

Fold again and iron.

 

Sew your bottom hem.

 

Cut your ribbon twice the length of the casing for each side.

 

 Put a safety pin on your ribbon and pull through casing for each side.

 

Fold your dress in half and make sure your ribbon is

equal on each side.

Make a crease in the fabric at the half-way mark.

Sew the ribbon into the casing at your half-way mark. 

Now your ready to play dress up!

Just look at that cutie!

What summer sewing project are you working on?