Pillowcase Dress

I fell in love with these dresses when I saw an adorable little 1 year-old wearing one at church. As of now, I don't have a daughter, but I'm pregnant and due in December (and crossing my fingers for a girl). I have a 1 son, but crafts and sewing projects tend to center around girls. So for now, I've had to settle for making things for my sister's girls.

Tutorial:

**You can actually use a pillowcase and just alter the neckline and arm holes if you want, but I made mine from scratch.

1. Measure your child from the shoulder to where you want the hem to rest (and then add 3 inches to allow for seams) to get your total length. Or you can use these generic lengths as well.

• 6 month - 14.5" long
• 12 months - 16.5" long
• 18 months - 17.5" long
• 2T - 18 .5" long
• 3T - 19.5" long
• 4T - 20.5" long
• 5 - 21.5" long
• 6 - 22.5" long

2. Cut your fabrich to the desired length and width (below are approximate widths with your fabric folded in half width wise). The total width would be doubled if you don't fold the fabric in half.

• 6-18 months - 15" wide
• 2T-4T - 16-20" wide
• 5-6 - 21-24" wide

3. Sew the side seam and then iron the seam open.

4. Cut armholes. By folding the dress in half, you can line up both arm corners so you can cut them at the same time, making them identical. You'll want to cut a "J" shape out of the corner. Below is a picture of the piece I cut out. For reference, you can use these approx. measurements:

• 6 month - 2T - cut down 3" from the top and in 1.5" from the side
• 3T-4T - cut down 4" from the top and in 2" from the side
• 4 and 5 - cut down 5 or 6" from the top and in 2" from the side
• 6 - cut down 7 or 8" from the top and in 2" from the side
  

5. You have 2 options for finishing the edges around the arm holes:

• sew bias tape around the edge
• fold in 1/4"and iron flat and then fold another 1/4" in and iron then sew (i used thise option - folding in twice makes it so that you don't have any raw edges)

6. Fold the top (neckline) in approx. 1" and sew.

7. Cut ribbon into 2 pieces of equal length (1 yard each) and thread it through the neck line. Your ribbon may be too long on the smaller sizes after you tie it on their shoulders, but I would wait to cut it until you try it on your child to know where you want the length to be. I also used Fray-Check on the edges of the ribbon so they won't fray in the wash or by wearing it.

8. Fold the bottom in 3" and hem. You can add ribbon or ric-rac to the seam line like I did if you want some embelishment. I also added some contrasting fabric at the bottom too.