Monday, August 2, 2010

Pillowcase Dress

(I apologize for the bad picture... ha, I walked all the way upstairs to get my phone to take the picture, even though the camera was sitting about one foot away from me, simply because I could email myself the picture instead of having to hook the camera up to the USB.  Physically capable... mentally lazy.) 

My darling friend Racheal and I are good at fueling each other's crafty nature... it seems that every week or so, one of us as a new idea that we Must. Try. Today. and even though we rarely have the time to actually do so, we have a great time talking about it!

Back in March we experienced one such time and that time we discussed making Pillowcase Dresses for our daughters.  We went thrift store shopping when she was 36 weeks or so pregnant and bought out the lot of cute pillowcases we could find.  And then we came home.  And she had a baby and we both have lives and now it is August.

There are a bunch of wonderful sites out there that talk about the history of pillowcase dresses and also a number of patterns, and I want to prototype a number of them.  After staring at a few pillowcases I found when unearthing my sewing stuff from the multitude of tubs that had overtaken the basement, I decided it was finally time to give it a go.  Using one of Julia's dresses as a pattern, I drafted up a butcher paper pattern for a dress and went to town tonight.

Yes.  Tonight.  It only took two hours to make this dress.  How cool is that!?!?

So... a few notes...

1.  It is a prototype for a few reasons... a.) I'm not sure 100% that it will actually fit Julia or... I think it will fit her, but getting it on might be tough as it isn't knit... b.) there are a few obvious mistakes but THAT is okay... and c.) no matter how hard I tried and all of the tricks I tested out, the pillowcase refuses to be white.  I even used ecru thread to stitch it.

2.  I finally learned a fabulous, fast, and EASY way to gather... I learned it here... and Oh. My. Gosh., I must NOW make one of the fabulous Fluffy Pettiskirts.  Seriously.  But, really.  I have been afraid of gathering for a long time, but this was SO easy and it worked well and honestly took about two minutes.  Crazy easy.  Love it!

3.  Pillowcases dresses are Oh. So. Very. Cheap.  Pillowcase?  $0.75.  Button?  $0.33  Bias Tape?  $0.60.  Yah.  THAT cheap.  All it took was TIME.  And even though that isn't always easy to come by, it's so worth finding the time in the end!

I have a few more pillowcases that are MUSTS as dresses... especially a beautiful yellow one with pink crocheted flowers on it... Racheal loves yellow and I think it would look so precious on her daughter.  And, I have a few more patterns that I am stoked to try out.  Yay!

Erin
 
ps.  This doesn't necessarily belong in this post... and there are a lot of things that I haven't blogged about this summer... but if you are of the praying variety, please send up a prayer for us... we have had a number of unfortunate mishaps this summer... and just when it looked like things were taking a positive turn, tonight some part in our furnace took a dump.  So... that means, no air conditioning until it is fixed.  Adam and I are not big "hot" people.  And it is supposed to be 92 tomorrow (Tuesday).  Fun.  Fun, fun, fun.  I am on the brink, I tell you what.

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