Pink Pillowcase dresses

I have been meaning to make pillowcase dresses since I saw them on Red Ted’s blog, but our last minute holiday this week provided the ideal opportunity. I have been collecting random pillowcases from charity shops in advance of doing this because I have every intention of making some more, once I’ve cracked it, to send to Sew Scrumptious for her dress appeal.

The steps really are surprisingly simple: to give you an idea,  I made these in an afternoon, albeit at my mum’s house with her expertise (and Grannying skills) on hand. The Girls loved them so much they wouldn’t take them off.

The dress is very plain once finished, unless you use a madly patterned pillowcase, so I was keen to add some embellishment. Having made them, I decided not to bother with the shoulder ties that you can add for decoration, but to add this fabulous trim that I bought from Hobbycraft. Simply running a stitch through the centre of the trim held it in place and also stiched up the envelope flap that most pillowcases have: my only concern about the dress had been what to do about that been so I’m delighted that the trim worked as well as it did.

For the larger dress, I made a trim myself. I cut a length of fabric about two inches wide and sewed a large stitch down the middle of it. Pulling on one of the two thread ends, I was able to bunch the fabric in a loose ruffle. I pinned a ribbon through the centre of the ruffle and onto the dress and then sewed through the centre, including the envelope flap, exactly as I did with the smaller dress, to attach it.

Et voila: two easy peasy summer sun dresses. I’m off to polish my Domestic Goddess badge.