Making a Pillow Dress for Amelia's First Birthday

It has been a crazy week in our household and I am finally getting to sit down and blog.  Alex started our week off with a bout with a lovely stomach bug and ended out the week with his kindergarten screening.

I have been working all week on a dress for Amelia's first birthday.  It should have taken me less than an hour to make but like I said it has been crazy here this week and I only worked on it a little at a time.  Amelia will be turning one here in a few weeks and I thought that it would be nice if I could make her party dress.  I have to say it is so much fun making little girl clothes.  I love my son and I love making him things too but this is a nice change.  I decided to make a little pillowcase dress for her since it will be cool to wear on a hot July day in the south.  It has already been in the mid nineties for the past few weeks with no break in sight.  It will only get hotter here for the next few months.

Here is what you will need to create this darling dress:
1 yeard of a cute fabric - something cotton, lightweight
matching thread
2 yards of coordinating thread
bias tape - I used my own with 20" x 3" strips of her dress fabric

Here is the fabric that I used: SO CUTE!!

I started by cutting out a pattern and using it for cutting the material.  The pattern measures 4.5" for the neck, 6" x 2" for the arm, 20" for the middle, and 11" for the bottom.  You will need to cut out two - one for the back and one for the front.

Next, I made my bias tape.  I cut out two strips of the fabric - 20" x 3".  You will then iron it making a crease down the middle.

You will then open that up and fold the sides to the middle and iron those flaps down.

You will then fold the flaps together and there you have your bias tape for to finish the arms of the dress off cleanly.

Next, I hemmed the bottom of the dress on each piece of fabric.  I did not sew the sides together until later.  I folded it up 1/2" and then folded that over another 1/2" to create an inch hem at the bottom.  I also did a 1/2" hem at the neck but you will finish the neck later.

I then attached the bias tape to each of the arm slots.  I pinned each one on and then cut the extra off.  One one side you will use half and then the other half on the other side.  You will need to do this on the front and back piece of the fabric.  I then sewed it on using a straight stitch remembering to back stitch at the ends to reinforce the hold.

Now for the neck.  I used ribbon that is 7/8" wide so I made the hem of the neck 1.5".  I folded it down and pinned it before I sewed it down with a straight stitch and reinforced the ends.

I then pinned the front and back together, right sides together.  

You will then sew the sides together.  I used a zig zag stitch and then reinforced the ends with a straight stitch.  I wanted to make sure it was strong since this is for a one year old.

Lastly is threading the ribbon through the hem that you created.  I attached a safety pin to make it easy to pull through.  Once it is pulled through you can tie the ends in a bow to make cute little straps for the dress.

Here is the final product.  Sorry it is kinda hanging sideways.  This is for a size 18 month so you can change the measurements for the size that you will want.  I think it will be a perfect dress for her birthday!

If you have any comments or questions, feel free to post below.