scarves and pillowcases - dresses and blouses

This is the last thing that my Mom made and brought for us when she visited a week and a half ago. She made the girls these super-simple super-adorable dresses from scarves!!

Enter my pillowcase obsession. It is hard to come find awesome pillowcases but ever since the pillowcase halter top I made K I've been looking.

I found a pretty little embroidered one at GW for $1.99. I decided that the halter top style probably wouldn't work as well with it so I decided to adapt the scarf dress idea to make K a blouse.

This is another super easy project.

• Cut the end off the pillowcase.
• Use your seam ripper to carefully open the side seams from the top of the pillow case down to about half way.
• Slip the pillowcase over your child's head and slip their arms through the sides. Decide how much you want to cut off. Remember to leave enough for the casing and for the arm slit (the casing will need to add two inches above what you need for the depth of your arm slits. The arm slits are basically the bottom half of the sleeves and you need to make them deep enough so your daughter can move her arms freely but not so deep she shows off things that should be kept under cover).
• If you don't have a serger, zigzag your raw edges. Most pillowcase fabric frays easily.
• Reinforce the side seams, especially below the arm slit.

If you look closely at the picture above (and draw your eyes away from my apallingly revolting ironing board), you can see how the arm slits have been hemmed and the casing is made.

• Use the natural fold that occurred from the ripped out seam and hem the edges of the arm slits.
• Fold the top edge of the pillowcase over a quarter of an inch, fold it again and hem.
• Fold the top edge down another 1 1/2" and sew. This will be the casing for the straps/ribbon.
• Run ribbon (or make your own straps from denim like I did) through your casing. Tie at the shoulders (if you are like me and worry your girls might untie the knot, sew the straps together after you figure out how long they need to be).

 

I should mention these blouses were very nicely ironed before we went shopping but did I take photos before shopping? NO!!

Look another pillowcase halter in a different style!! Another pillowcase from GW for $1.99 Unfortunately, the making of this one was a comedy of errors and I did lots of ripping of stitches and still ended up with two buttonholes hidden in the armpit. Note to Self: Do not think that because you can't sleep it is a good idea to try sewing at 4:30-5:00 in the morning.

However, my mistakes did cause me to discover a better way to make the casing for the halter strap than the idea I intended to use. My mistakes and impatience at the end of this project resulted in a wonky hem. Just the same I like the boho feel of this one.

I got my inspiration for this idea from the header of Melissa's blog Until Wednesday Calls.

Detail of the embroidery on this one because it is kind of hard to see. This pillow case is so thin that I doubled it over to make the top - which you can see at the waist (and which, I wish was more evident).

And more photos for fun.

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