The Little Jackie O Dress - Tutorial

As you probably already know, I have a slight obsession with making things from vintage and /or thrifted pillowcases and sheets. In fact, when I go to the thrift store that's the first thing I look for. I have been working on some dresses for the Pillowcase Project but I had these two pillowcases that were just begging to be made into dresses for Alivea.

Here is the first one. The one my husband called the Jackie O dress.

(please forgive the horrible quality pictures- you have to take what you can get with a toddler who does not like to have her picture taken)

Here is the back of the dress. I love the little red button. I feel like it adds a little pop to the dress.

Here is a closeup of the front of the dress. I adore the little placket on the front. It gives it the vintage feel and adds texture to a plain front.

And here is the back of the dress again with that cute red button.

(Notice that the dress is kind of bell shaped at the bottom. I changed that. It looked too wonky to me.)

So want to know how you can turn a pillowcase into a more stylish dress for your little one. Here's a tutorial. The best thing about this dress is that you can "accessorize" the dress so many ways by adding pockets, ruffles, a placket, etc. The sky really is the limit. The bones of these two dresses are the same. The only difference is the "accessories". I would love to see what you come up with. If you make a dress using this tutorial, please send me a picture so I can see how yours turned out.

Little Jackie O Dress Tutorial

1. Take a dress that already fits your child and lay it out on your pillowcase (or other piece of fabric). Make sure to fold your dress and lay it on the fold of the pillowcase.

2. Cut out your dress. You will be cutting through 2 layers of fabric and will end up with a front and a back to your dress. Follow the back neckline for both pieces.

3. Choose one of those pieces to be your front and cut that piece again around the neck (since your front neckline is lower than your back). Follow the neckline of the dress you started with.

4. Follow this tutorial to add the placket to the back piece for the button closure. Trust me this tutorial is awesome. It makes it so easy- you'll be adding button closures to everything.

5. If you want to add the placket with the piping, like in the yellow dress with the red button, here is what you do. Take a 4x4 inch piece of your fabric and turn down about 5/8" all the way around your square. Sew piping onto the edges of your square and then sew the placket to the front of your dress. Remember to leave room for your bias tape or for however you are going to finish your neckline.

6. On this orange dress, I added pockets. I love these type of pockets and am so pleased with how they turned out. Trace a shape a little larger than your child's hand onto the wrong side of your fabric. I used a coordinating pink fabric (since I messed the first set of pockets up!). Make sure you cut out 4 of these pieces.

7. Sew your shoulder seams together.

8. Take one of the pocket pieces and determine how low you want it to be on your dress. I put it 10" from the shoulder seam. My daughter fits a size 3T (I hope that gives you an idea!). Sew a line to attach it to the right side of your fabric. In the picture below, imagine sewing a line across the yellow pins. Do not sew around the curve of the pocket!!!!!

9. Repeat this for the front and the back and on both sides of the dress.

10. Turn your dress wrong side out and sew from where your arm hole stops all the way down to the bottom of the dress, making sure to sew around the curves of the pockets. (See where I have it pinned below in the picture below.) Do not sew across the pocket.

11. Turn your dress right side out and finish the arm holes and the neckline, either with bias tape, piping or by turning and sewing. It really is up to you. Again, the sky is the limit.

12. Here is the finished product.

front

back (with a green button)

the cute pocket

So, what do you think? Pretty easy huh? And so customizable. And who cares if your toddler spills paint all over it or messes it up, it was a pillowcase after all, not some expensive fabric! But seriously, I love the ease of these dresses and I love that my daughter has a dress that was made by me (with lots of love) and that is so different from some off-the-rack dress.

So, give this tutorial a try and let me know what you think. I'd love to see your dresses.

I'm also linking up to a new linky party at Crayon Freckles (sorry the button isn't working right now). Go check out Andie's cute blog.