Finished: Pillow Case Dress

As part of Ella's First Birthday Thank You card project, I decided I wanted to create one of her outfits myself.

I saw this Pillow Case Dress on a blog a few days ago and bookmarked it. Call it a coincidence, but I saw a very similar one this past weekend in a local boutique. From the moment I saw the price tag($52), I knew I had to make it.

It's similar to a dress pattern my sister made for me when I bought yardage from my class' Carnival design. I used the dress once, on one of the days I was a chair for Hamburger-Ewa. Don't get me wrong, it was a cute dress. I'm just not into Hawaiian print, ever.

So the online tutorial is intended for a bigger kid. I decided to create my own pattern based off measurements from a few dresses she already wears.







I wanted it to be about 19" long, 12" at the chest, and 17 at the bottom. So, I added for seam allowance and divided by half, then sketched out a dress pattern, and the cut pieces.







I wanted the bottom hem to be a different fabric (an actual pillowcase), so it took me a while to pin together and figure out how to sew it.








I sewed the front and back pieces, right sides together, taking care to line up the bi-color hem.







I finished the edge for the arm hole and tacked down the extra fabric where the front and back pieces were attached. I created a half-inch hem at the neckline to string through the decorative strap I made with the 1/4" bias tape maker.

Here we have the finished dress:







It turned out really cute! Check it... I actually made my own (freehand modified an existing) dress pattern and it works.