Pillowcase Dresses

A few weeks ago now, our little girly had a birthday party to attend for one of her friends that we go to church with.  And our church family is particularly blessed with an abundance of boys, so the girls really have to stick together.  I'm really glad these two girls have each other.  So when it came time for this birthday party, I thought of my friend, Amy and how she made some pillowcase dresses for her daughter and daughter's friend for a birthday gift.  So after not finding what I was looking for on the internet, I emailed Amy to get the links that she had used. This one was what I was looking for, but it didn't have pictures and that's what I've come to appreciate with craft blogs.  So I decided to take pictures of my process as I used the steps from the ehow article Amy sent me.  Hope you enjoy this photo tutorial.

To make 2 coordinating pillowcase dresses in about size 5/6, I purchased: 2 yards of coordinating fabric (1 yard of each), 1-3 yard spool of 7/8" ribbon and coordinating thread.
To cut the fabric, measure from the back of the child's neckline to the finished length + 2 inches for seam allowance and cut your fabric to this length.  For me the measurement was 23 inches.  So 23+2=25 inches.  With my fabric folded in half, I just cut it into a long 25 inch rectangle.  I also added a 6 inch piece of the coordinating fabric to make a band around the seam.  And I think I also used a 1/4" seam allowance unless otherwise mentioned.  (On the second dress, I made that coordinating band 8", just to make it a bit wider.)

Now time to press:
With the wrong side facing up, press the top edge of the fabric in a 1/4" all the way around.

Then fold and press 1".  (You're prepping the casing for the ribbon around the neckline.)

Then I pressed that 6 inch piece in half, so it's now 3 inches.  (On the second dress, I pressed the 8" piece in half making a 4" piece.)

With right sides together, I pinned and then sewed the double sided 3 inch band to the bottom of the main fabric piece.  Then I pressed the seam up toward the main fabric.

Next, fold the fabric so right sides are together.  Measure 6 inches down from the top of the casing folds.   Mark with a pin.  This will be the top of the one side seam and the bottom of one armhole.  Now sew up this side seam.

Then I went back down to the bottom of the dress and sewed a top stitch to keep the band laying nicely.  This was about 1/8" seam allowance.

Now back up to the armholes.  On the folded side, you will need to measure 6" from the top of the folded casing, mark it, and cut the fold apart.  NOTE: If I make these again, I'll be doing the armholes differently.  Either, I will trim the fabric for the armholes at a curve or just finish the edges with bias tape.  It was really hard to get the seam right on the corner around the folded side.

But I followed the directions I was using and folded the armhole edges in 1/4" on the selvage edge, and 1/4" plus one more 1/4" fold on the raw/cut edge.  Then I sewed these seams, but it was really tricking.  Not my favorite part of the dress.

Then it was time to sew down the casing.  I did this seam really close to the edge of the casing fold.

Lastly you put a safety pin on one end of the ribbon and feed it through the  casing to the other side.  Singe the ribbon edges and tie in bows.  And that's really it!  Not too bad, pretty quick.

Here are the girls in their dresses on Sunday morning.  They seemed to like coordinating.

But most of all they liked to twirl together!  And who can blame them?