Pillowcase Dresses

Recently my grandma (Mom's stepmother) sent me a box of craft supplies, as she's getting a little too old to use them anymore- crazy arthritis doesn't allow you to stitch quite as easily. Anyway, inside the box there was fabric and lace and bias and pipe cleaners and ribbon and even a doll making kit that she bought, my mom stitched a face for, but she never got around to actually making it. None of the fabric was more than about a half a yard so there wasn't a lot I could do but there was one purple patterned fabric that I LOVED and there was also a complimentary purple (there were also pre-cut squared in the box of each fabric so I'm guessing she used them for a quilt). I decided that with the two fabrics combined I had enough for a set of matching 2T dresses.

I started by stitching the two fabrics together and ironing them out to cut, generally following this Pretty Prudent pattern (also the pattern I followed for that last dress I posted).

After I had them cut I went ahead and zigzag stitched over the seam to help keep from fraying, see:

Then to prevent the seam from bothering my precious K twins I went ahead and added a thin strip of interfacing (I also didn't lock stitch the zigzag because I knew I was going to do this and there will be another seam over it anyway).

Next I stitched the sides together and did a zigzag to finish the side seams.

After that, I used bias tape to finish the bottom and support the arms (I hadn't finished the bias in the pictures, I had only done the first step of sewing them on but had ironed them to prep for the next step):

Finally I sewed a seam for the neck. I pinned and ironed down a 1/4 inch and then folded down another 3/4 inch and stitched near the bottom so I could lace a ribbon through for the sleeves.

And here's the finished product (with the bow I made to match that can be seen closer in my previous post):

Isn't it cute? I love how they turned out and I definitely can't complain about free fabric. Now to wait for summer to actually allow the twins to wear them.... (that's the hardest part!!)
Hopefully I'll get a good picture of the K twins in them to share with you all.

That's all for now,
Jo!

**Update: There is a photo of the twin Ks in their dresses on the Mar. 16, 2015 post entitled "A Quick One".