The Ubiquitous Pillowcase Dress

I know everyone and their mother has made these, but when I saw these pillowcases at Goodwill, I knew that my girls NEEDED them for dresses. The embroidered flower baskets and lace trim were FAR too cute not to come home with me.

I used Grace Violet's tutorial, and it was easy-peasy. Well, except for the part where I had my machine mis-threaded and it took forever and a day to pick out the rat's nest of stitches on the strap that were the result. But that's my own airy-fairy-not-paying-attention-ness, which is no fault of the lovely and talented Grace Violet.

The only part that got a little tricky was the armholes. They kind of want to wing outward on me, instead of staying nicely pressed and tucked under. I am sure that's my fault, too. But it's not that noticeable once the dress is on the child.

I used 1" elastic to gather the front and back, which looks fine on Trin, but is a little bit overwhelmingly large on Viv. If I did these again, I'd bump hers down to 1/2".

I also might try the bias tape armhole binding/strap tie method that's tutorial-ized at Freshly Picked, to eliminate the above-mentioned winging. And possibly get very crazy, and make my own contrasting bias tape. Mostly because it is an excuse to buy a bias-tape-maker. I just think they are nifty as all heck.

Here's the dress on my littlest model. Doesn't she look sweet and adorable and demure? It is all an act. She is pure rottenness, honestly. Just all will and stubbornness and attitude.

But, she is awfully snuggable and smoochable. So she has that going for her.

Seriously, those little cheeks are like ripe peaches. I want to go nibble on her right now.