.:Tutorial Tuesday - Pillowcase Dress:.

Go here to enter the SheyB giveaway!

Yesterday I promised to share the tutorial on how to make these babies.

They are ridiculously easy - perfect for a beginning seamstress like myself!

What you need:

- fabric

- ribbon

- sewing machine/accessories

I forgot to take pictures of these first few steps, so just imagine it in your mind!

The first thing you need to do is figure out how long you want your dress to be total.

Then, if you are using two fabrics, you'll want to figure out how big you want your strip at the bottom to be.

You will also need to figure out how wide you need your dress to be. A good rule of thumb is about 1.5 times wider than the normal width of your child's shoulders/shirt.

So, for instance, my regular width is 10 inches across. When I cut my fabric, I'm going to make the width be 15 inches.

I want my dress to be 20 inches long total. The strip at the bottom is going to be six inches long. So I would cut two strips of fabric at 15 x 6 1/2 (to allow for seams). I don't worry about adding extra to the width because it is already going to be quite a loose fit.

So if my bottom strip is 6 inches long, then I need my main body piece to be 14 inches long. I need a two inch seam at the top to make a casing for the ribbon, so that puts it up to 16 inches, and then another 1/4-1/2 inch for the seam where it attaches to the bottom strip. So I would cut two pieces at 15 x 16.5 for the main body.

Does that make sense? (Remember, I'm a beginner seamstress, so I may not explain things the best way possible!)

Once you've done this, you'll have four pieces of fabric cut.

Take your two main body pieces. Fold them in half, length wise. You need to cut your arm holes. I go about an inch in and six inches down.

Iron down a quarter inch on each arm hole.

Sew it, using a backstitch.

At the top of your main body fabrics, iron down about 2 inches.

Then sew this down. It will be the casing for the ribbon to go through.

Now take your bottom strips of fabric, pin a quarter inch hem and iron it down.

Then sew it across.

Now take your main body piece and lay it facing right side up on the table. Pin the strip to the bottom with the right sides facing.

Sew the two pieces together.

I like to top stitch on the right side. This helps hold down that flap of fabric underneath.

Once you've done this for all of your pieces, take what is now two pieces, and pin them together, right sides facing. Make sure your lines match up where the top and bottom pieces come together.

Sew them together.

I like to do a zig zag stitch along the unfinished edges. This helps it not to fray as much over time with wash and wear.

Turn it right side out.

Use a safety pin to string your ribbon through the casing. I chose to do one continuous string, but if you wanted bows on each shoulder, you could use two pieces of ribbon.

And done! Cute and easy! Just the way I like it.

These two dresses are going towards this service opportunity. Now that you know how to make them, you should donate too!