Pillowcase Dress Tutorial—Basic

        Everybody ready to make a pillowcase dress???  There are unlimited options for this dress; but, this tutorial will cover the basic dress only.  Future tutorials will show how to add borders, different ties, elastic, etc.  And, just a common sense warning, remember these dress have loose ribbon ties, so please don’t leave these on babies while sleeping or unattended J.

First, determine what size dress you want to make.  Sizing on pillowcase dresses is very forgiving.  A size 2 can fit up to a size 4 and beyond fi you just want to use it as a top over pants or leggings.  Judge size needed primarily by length.  I always find it easier to measure a child’s garment that fits well, rather than try to measure the actual child.

• I based fabric requirements on 44/45” wide fabric since it’s the most common.

I always allow for a fairly deep 3” hem because I like the way it makes the dress hang.  You can always cut length off, but it’s a little trickier to put it on.

There are only 2 pieces to a pillowcase dress, a front and back, and they’re both rectangles. Fold your fabric in half, selvedges (the finished side-not the cut ends) together, and cut rectangles according to the chart.

*Some people like to use the entire width of the fabric.  This will just make the dress ‘fluffier’.  If you are using a thin fabric, this is a very nice, ‘floaty’ effect.  After you make your first dress, you can adjust these measurements to suit the way you want your dress to look.

I’m going to be making a 12m size, so I cut my rectangles 19”x18”.  Actually, I don’t cut my rectangles. I use the ‘tearing’ technique mentioned in the fabric prep. article.  Just make a knick in the fabric with your scissors, and then tear it.  It makes a perfectly straight edge and it’s a lot quicker.

And here, you see my 2 rectangles, each measuring 19”x22”.  I usually put a pin or draw a small ‘x’ in the top of each panel, so I don’t confuse my lengths and widths, but since I have a directional print on this fabric it won’t be necessary.

Now, for the armholes.  Many people just ‘eyeball’ this, but I prefer to make a template.  For sizes 3m-2T, draw a rectangle measuring 2”x4”.  For sizes 3T and above, draw a rectangle that is 3”x5”.  Curve one corner.  I use a cup or small plate, but you can just guess-timate’ if you want.  Cut this out.

Next, fold each panel, wrong sides together (WST), and stack them on top of each other.  You may have to do a little stretching and patting to get them to fold smoothly.  Place the armhole templates with the straight edges aligned along the raw edges of the fabric panels as pictured. Trace the template and the cut all 4 layers at the same time.

I like to make my necklines angle slightly so you get a curve to the top instead of just straight across.  On the folded edge, mark down 1” then draw a diagonal line to the top corner of the other side.  Cut along the line through all 4 layers of fabric.

Now, we are ready to stitch this up!  Unfold panels and lay them together with the wrong sides together.  Stitch up each side seam using a ½” seam allowance.  I like a finished seam, so I trim close to the seam and then stitch again using a zigzag stitch.

Time to work on the armholes.  Press under ¼” and then press under another ¼” all along both U-shaped armholes.  Then, stitch this narrow hem.

Next, press under ¼” along the top edges of the front and the back.  Then, fold over again, this time about 1” and press.  The first fold forms a narrow hem and the second fold makes the casing for the ribbon ties.

Then just stitch along the folded edge making sure to catch the ¼’ hem.

We are now ready to hem the dress.  Press under a 1/4” narrow hem, then another 3” hem.  You can hem by machine if you like, but I usually do this by hand.

There are a lot of different options as far as the ties are concerned.  You can just use one long piece of ribbon (I get 2yds. so I’ll have room to trim if necessary).  Pin a safety pin in one end of the ribbon and just inch it through the casing.  If you want ties on both shoulders, cut the ribbon in half and use one piece for the back and the other for the front.

Don

t forget to seal the ends of your ribbon, either with Fray-Check or by slightly burning them.

Now, you have a sweet pillowcase dress!  In the next tutorial, I will cover haw to so some the optional techniques, such as a bottom border, rick rack trim, and a fabric tie instead of ribbon.  Keep checking back with Little Miss Country!

Lesson 1- Fabric Prep

Before I get started on the ‘Ultimate Pillowcase Dress’ tutorial, we’ll go over some basic sewing techniques.  Fabric quality is something you need to be aware of from the start.  First, let me be clear, I’m not ‘snubbing’ any fabric, I just like to know what I’m dealing with before I invest my time and money.

Pre-treat all your fabrics in the same manner you want to treat them after they have been sewn.  If you intend to wash them, wash now!  Sometimes, I wash my fabrics a couple of times before sewing with them.  I did a comparison test on the fabric below.  I bought 1 yard of fabric ($5.97) and cut it in half.  I washed one half twice and measured the result.

My original piece (left) was 22”x37”.  After washing (right) the piece measured 20.5”x35.5” and had lost a lot of its body.  So, I just lost about 10% of my fabric.  But, better to lose it now, instead of after it’s been made into a garment.  And we’re still not done J.  Now, the grain has to be straightened.  There are various ways to do this; the quickest is by tearing the fabric.  I usually do this before washing, but forgot this time.  Just make a small nick in the selvedge, the grab each side and pull in opposite directions.

This fabric was very loosely woven and soft, so it didn’t tear as nicely as a more tightly woven fabric.  After tearing off the uneven edges, I now have a piece that measures 20.5”x34.5”- a total reduction of 13%.

The torn edge is straight, but now, if you look closely, the pattern looks crooked.  It’s printed on the fabric, instead of woven.  If I choose to make something that has a straight edge, like a hemmed skirt, this will show.  If I line my pattern up so that the straight edges follow the pattern lines, the garment won’t hang nicely.

Now, I’m going to conduct the same tests on a ‘more expensive’ fabric.  This is an ‘out of print’ fabric by Robert Kaufman, but Kaufman quilting fabrics usually cost between $9-$10 per yard.  The fabric store in my area (Fabric Boutique- Bossier City, LA) is fabulous, and they actually TEAR the fabric off the bolt instead of cutting.  This means if you buy a yard of fabric, you get a full yard of useable, straight grain fabric.

Measurements on this piece of fabric are as follows:  before washing-  36.5×21.5, after washing- 36×21.  Since the fabric was torn at the time of purchase, I don’t have to tear it to get a straight edge.  Loss on this fabric is 3.6%.

As I said before, my goal is not to prove one fabric better than the other, simply to show what factors you may be dealing with.  If you know these factors ahead of time, you can adjust to compensate for them.

So, start locating some fabric and getting it prewashed and ironed.  We’ll be starting the pillowcase tutorial shortly.

After being in the commercial poultry business for 15 years, we sold our chicken houses and said “never again.”  Well, we all know what happens when you say never!  It wasn’t long before Mr. Country decided he wanted a never-ending supply of fresh eggs, so while we didn’t go into it on a commercial scale, we added a flock of chickens to the farm family.

This is some of the birds pecking around.  The strange thing you see hanging in the middle of the pen is a CD tied to string.  We hope to scare off the hawks with it.  I came up with the bright idea to hang wind chimes instead, which we will be trying soon.  I don’t knowif it will work any better, but I think it will sound nice

These are Rhode Island Red chickens.  They aren’t anything special to look at, but they are excellent layers.

This is an Ameraucana chicken. They are also very good layers, plus they lay the “Easter” eggs-  all different colors.  The Rhode Island Reds and the Ameraucanas are the primary egg layers for us, but we also keep a good variety of exotics just for fun.

This is Evangeline.  She’s a Frizzle and a much older bird than all the rest.  We’ve had her for a couple of years now, while the other birds are only a couple of months old.

This is one of my favorites, the Blue Silkie.  She’s very shy and hides from me, but I’ll try to get a better picture when she gets a little older.

This is a young Mille Fleur rooster.  We should see a fair amount of change in color as he grows up.  Notice all the feathers on his feet.

And this is a white Sultan.  They are not shy at all, and love to strut around like beauty pageant contestants (lol).

I’ll be keeping you posted on this adventure as the chickens get older.  I’m gonna have to come up with names for them!

My very first ‘real’ blog post I’m very excited to share my country ways and country days with you all!  Soon you will get to meet all our farm animals, get great tips and instructions on anything and everything, and hopefully have a few laughs along the way.  Now that the site is set up, time to get out the camera and start sharing.  Be sure to check back often!

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