How to Make a Pillowcase Dress

April 17, 2013 by

A Pinch of Joy: How to Make a Pillowcase Dress

Pillowcase dresses are so quick and easy to make!      They are cool and comfortable, perfect for warm weather!    You can make them from . . . tah dah. . . an actual pillowcase.  Or find  cute and colorful fabric and create a dress to match a personality.    Pillowcase dresses are so easy a beginner can make one.   

You will need approximately one yard of 42″ – 45″ sturdy fabric, and 2.5 yards of 1″ wide grosgrain ribbon for each dress you plan to make.  All dresses are made from the full width of the fabric.  Only the length will vary.    If the child for whom you are making the dress is available, measure from the base of the neck down to the point on the leg where you want the dress to end.  Add 5 inches *  to that number to allow for casing and hem folds.  That is the length you will need.  Or you can check the size chart here to determine the length of the fabric you will need.  

Disclaimer:  I recently made several of these dresses in one sitting so don’t let the different fabrics throw you.  I don’t think I remembered to take pictures of all the steps for any one dress!  Sorry – -

Preparing the fabric

Prepare the fabric.  This cotton fabric had a crooked end.  To straighten it, make a cut about  into the fabric about 1 inch from the edge.  Firmly grasp the fabric in both hands and rip it straight across.  The rip will follow the threads and create a straight line. You can use the same method on the other end only make the cut at the point that is the correct length for your dress.    Beginner note:  The white in the picture above is called a selvage (from “self edge”).  The weaving process creates a tight edge on the sides of the fabric that will not fray. (Not all selvages are white.)   Match the selvages together so the fabric lies smooth and the right sides are together.  

Ironing the seamStitch along the selvage, making a seam about 1/4 inch wide.  You will end up with a fabric tube with the right side of the fabric inside.    Press the seam to one side.  It will be in the center back of the finished dress.   You can press it down with your fingers, but an iron makes a sharper crease that will stay.  

cut armholePlace the seam you just sewed on the center crease of the fabric.  Beginner note: The center crease is the one that shows from when the fabric was on the bolt. If it doesn’t show, lay the fabric on your table to the stitched end lays flat and is on one side.  The fold  created on the other side will fall on the center.  Mark the fold with a pin or a light pencil mark. Place the seam at that point.  Keep the right sides of the fabric together.  Fold the fabric in half with the seam to the inside.  The armholes are cut on the side with TWO folds.  Mark a point two inches in from the two folds on the end of the fabric.  Measure 5 inches down and mark on the fold.  Connect the two points with a “J” curve as shown in the picture.  Cut the armholes. 

Press hems

  If you are making more than one dress, take thirty seconds to make a template for the casing and the hem.  The measurements for the casing and the hem are the same on every size dress.  Having a template will save you tons of time!   I used the back of an instant oatmeal box to make mine.    On one side, measure down one inch on the two ends.  Mark those two points and draw a line connecting them.   On the other side, make your line one and a half inches from the edge.  I recommend using an iron and doing these next steps on your ironing board or padded surface.  Pressing in the creases you need before sewing is another big time saver for all your projects. 

With the wrong side of the fabric still on the outside, place it on your work surface.  On the end between the armholes, use the one inch template.  Place it on the fabric near the edge.  Fold the fabric over and adjust the template and fabric until the fabric lies smooth.  The edge of the template should be in the fabric fold and the edge of the fabric should be on the one inch line.  Press the fold with an iron on medium heat.  Set aside the template and make a second fold toward the the center of your garment.  This fold is right at the cut edge of the first fold.  Press that to make a double fold.  This forms the casing for your ribbon.

Repeat this procedure at the bottom of the dress, using the one and a half inch template.  This becomes the hem of the dress. 

A note about hem widths:  I made my finished hems one and a half inches wide.  Many instructions only call for a one inch hem.  You can make hems as small as one fourth inch wide.   (*Note: adjusting the hem will change the amount of fabric required.  The five inches added to find the length of fabric above will become 2 inches for the casing folds PLUS double the width of the hem.  For example, if you make the hem one half inch wide, you would add three inches to your child’s measurement instead.)

If you are making just one dress, you can skip making the template.  Just measure the casing and the hem directly on the fabric, pinning it into place.  Pressing the folds before sewing will still give you a crisper, more professional finished look.

Phew!!!  That took way longer to explain than it will take you to actually do it!

Finish armholes

There are two ways to finish the armholes.  Some people prefer to use bias tape.  I just put in a quarter inch hem.  Beginner note: While the fabric is still on the work surface, fold over 1/4 inch of fabric all the way around the armhole.  If fabric does not lie flat, use the point of your scissors to snip from the edge to the fold.  This will open the curve and flatten the fabric.   Repeat the quarter inch fold to make a double fold.  Pin if needed to hold fabric in place.  Press and then stitch hem in place.

Stitch hem and casing

Stitch hem near open edge.   Stitch each casing between the armholes in the same way.   Beginner note: At the end of each casing reverse the stitch without cutting the thread.  This means you will stitch backward for a few stitches.  Release the reverse button and stitch forward again until your needle is off the fabric.  The triple stitching that you create this way, makes the end of the stitching stronger.  It will be better able to resist tearing out if the ribbon is pulled too hard.  

Insert ribbon

Cut two pieces of ribbon, each 45 inches long.  Fasten a safety pin on one end of a ribbon and begin to work it through the casing.  

Scrunch ribbon

Push and scrunch the pin through the fabric, smoothing out gathers along the ribbon.  When pin and ribbon emerge on the other side, pull the ribbon through so that an equal amount is on either side.  Pull the second ribbon through the second casing and adjust ribbons if needed.  Find the center of each casing (measure or eyeball, either one).  Stitch from the edge of the dress to the line of stitching, reverse to the edge of the dress and come forward to the line of stitching again.  This creates a strong line of triple stitching to hold the ribbon in place so it does not come out when laundered. 

Done

 

D O N E !!!

Shown are three of the nine dresses I made in the last couple of days for a special donation.  Please join me in sewing for a cause.

Details are here.

You can leave your Pillowcase Dress plain as I did or your can add pockets, ties, ruffles and so much more.   Check out my Pillowcase Dress Board on Pinterest here for inspiration!

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Watering bottle – a Pinterest trial

June 7, 2012 by

You’ve seen it pinned all over Pinterest, especially if you are a gardener.  I had it on my own “Brilliant” board for a while — brilliant as in “why didn’t I think of this!”  I love ideas that are slightly out of the box — and cheap!  This sounded perfect.   “It” is  a plastic milk jug with holes pierced in the cap to make a watering bottle.   The pictures showed a couple of different versions with water gently pouring through the pierced cap.  I went looking for the original source and found at least three possibilities — and then decided it didn’t matter who was first because they probably don’t want the “credit” for my experiment.

The blog I first saw associated with this pin didn’t have any directions.  But really how hard could it be?  I grabbed my trusty hammer and a smallish nail and got to work.

Surprisingly the milk jug cap was on the soft side.  If I just put the point of the nail through, the plastic sort of healed itself and came back together.  I shoved the nail into the holes then and wiggled it to get the openings shown above.

Full of hope, I filled the milk jug and stood by the newly planted pots full of impatiens.   I anticipated a gentle stream of water, soaking the pots evenly without damaging the plants or gouging a hole in the potting soil.  There was a spotty sprinkle.  I hoisted the back end a little higher.  The sprinkle stopped.  I assessed the situation and decided I must have been holding it wrong (Isn’t that a typical woman response — all MY fault!) So I tried again, even more gently tipping the bottle so the water flowed to the holey cap. It dribbled until the level of the water completely covered the cap.  Nothing. Impatiens was quickly translating into impatient me!

I tried a third time with the same results.  Okay, maybe the holes are wrong.  Took the cap off and looked to see if there was a way the holes would plug themselves.  Nope!  Even all the way around, no “flaps” to plug the holes.  All right!  It was hot and I had been gardening all day — tired and dirty and quickly moving to the crabby side of life!

Apparently once the holes were covered with water, a vacuum was created in the bottle and there was no air pressure to force the water out.  A bit of experimentation showed that trying to leave the top couple of holes open to allow air into the bottle was not going to get those pots watered this week! No place to pierce the bottle itself to balance the air pressure without creating a dribble hole.  So I squeezed.  That got results — for about 15 seconds.  A good squirt of water before the vacuum took over.  Set the bottle upright, air rushed back in and repeat the process.   Not the most efficient process.  Plus I ended up with this:

I’d say — don’t bother to try this at home!  Unless you use a more rigid bottle than a milk jug and can figure out how to overcome the vacuum issue.  Or maybe your pin had the secret key with it — if so, would you mind letting us in on the secret???

I do love Pinterest!   Love everything about it — even if a very few of the ideas don’t work for me.  In fact, come back Sunday afternoon.  I have something planned in conjunction with Busy Monday that involves Pinterest and you.  An experiment you won’t want to miss!

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Storage Ideas

October 8, 2011 by

Love  Pinterest!  So many good ideas, so little time.  Here are some storage ideas I implemented this week that first came to me via  Pinterest.  I’m going to post my adaptation.   Maybe you’ll solve a problem, too!

I have a big pantry for which I am grateful, but it is hard to keep organized and find things in there!  Pinterest had the answer! Open baskets seem so obvious for storage.  But the last time I cleaned the pantry, I had several unused plastic shoe boxes so that’s what I used for small packages.  I reasoned I could stack them too – efficient.  Bah!  The time before that was something else that didn’t work.  So this time I invested in just two baskets as shown via Pinterest.  One has the pudding and gelatin collection with dried fruits and nuts.  Sort of a sweet basket.  The savory basket has pouches of tuna, instant potatoes, dried onion soup and such.  This solution looks like it is going to work!  In fact I may expand it with a third basket!

Soup cans on their side was a mixed success.  I found a rack made for soda cans for the experimental stage of this Pinterest idea.  Since my chicken soup in particular seems to wander all over the pantry, it seemed a natural for corralling.  The rack does a wonderful job of that.  It also helps me keep inventory since I can tell at a glance if it is time to restock this staple.  It does not save space however,  The rack holds twelve cans with 10 on top, in the same space that held almost 30 stacked side by side and two high. I like my chicky soup corral, but don’t think I will add any more.

My hairdryer has been a pest.  I don’t use it very often and when I do, I’m in a hurry.  If I leave it out where it is “handy”, it is the way and gets shoved around for weeks before I grab it.  If I put it away in a drawer or under the sink, I have to dig it out in a hurry, separating it and its curly cord from all the other things that live under there.   Someone pinned a magazine rack fastened to the cupboard door to hold a hair dryer.  Instead, I found a small cleaning tote made by Rubbermaid that had its own mounting system.  Ding!  My hair dryer’s new home.

If you haven’t checked out this virtual bulletin board, do!  Check out my Pinterest collection to see if there are new ideas for you.  (There’s also a pink pinterest button on the left if you’d like to follow my pins.)   Love that found ideas are not only saved for future reference, but that the user can search for ideas by topic and also check out other people’s entire collections.   Happy pinning!

 

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Green onions and Pinterest

September 9, 2011 by

 

 

 

 

 I recently signed up for a Pinterest account and am in love!    What a fantastic concept:  Allow people to save ideas discovered as they surfed the web, by pinning pictures of them to a virtual bulletin board.  And make it possible to sort those ideas by having multiple bulletin boards for different topics.  Then sheer genius!  Not only can the user save and categorize the ideas they find, they can see, evaluate AND save the ideas others have found!  Plus you can “follow” people who have saved ideas you really like so you can see when they save other new ideas you might really like.  Whoever dreamed this up and made it happen deserves a medal, a lifetime supply of chocolate and season tickets for their favorite team!

I repinned from someone I “follow” this picture on the right.  It was originally from the blog Lunch in a Box .  She says “When freezing chopped green onions, put them into an old water bottle that you’ve washed, . . .  Freeze. To use, simply remove the cap, shake out just as much as you need, replace the cap and return to the freezer. The clear bottle allows you to quickly see what’s inside, and shaking things out of a bottle is faster than spooning them out of a freezer container.”  I also used her idea of cutting the top off another water bottle to use as a funnel and noted that she says frozen green onions lose a bit of their crispness when frozen so she suggests using them in cooked dishes and within three weeks for best quality.

A simple idea from a site I probably would never have encountered in my usual cruise around the web, but that solves an ongoing problem.  I buy fresh produce,  use a bit, then it gets pushed to the back of the drawer where it languishes, unused.  Green onions, being smallish, are easy to lose and I often tossed out half a bunch beyond their prime.  Now, I use what I need from the purchase and chop the rest, easy since I already have the cutting board out. Bottle and freeze the chopped onion and have it ready to use in one or more other dishes without wasting anything. Saves time and helps the bottom line. A win-win that works for other fresh herbs, as well.

Click on the red button to the right to check out my Pinterest boards and pins. Click on the picture that catches your eye; it will have an identifying comment and a link to the place where it was originally found.  If you have an account already, you can repin directly from my entry and it will post on the virtual bulletin board you choose in your collection.  If you’d like to set up your own account, let me know in the comments and I will send you an invitation.

When you open an account, you install a “pin it” button on your toolbar.  You will create a few basic boards, that you can add to or delete whenever you want.  When you see an idea pictured that you want to save, click  the “pin it” button and follow the prompts to save it to one of the boards you created – or create a new board right then and there.  Read the comment below the picture and change it if you want, click “save pin” and its that easy.   Try it – you’ll fall in love, too!  And maybe even solve a few problems along the way!

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