Super easy, super cute pillowcase dress

I’ve sort of been avoiding making clothes for Elise, mainly because I was afraid that it would start me on another creative path that I don’t necessarily have time for, but Elise needed a dress for Easter. And honestly, making something seemed like the easiest option. I decided to make this dress while standing in the fabric section of Hobby Lobby, so that’s where this fabric is from.

I bought a yard of the polka dot and a half yard of the paisley floral for the bottom band. If I had been using a print that needed to be upright (like, if it had animals on it that needed to be right side up and not upside down), I probably would have needed more fabric. Luckily, the dots were the same both directions. I followed the directions for a pillowcase dress on Prudent Baby, but added the bottom band myself. Once I was able to try it on Elise, I shortened it on the top a few inches because the given dimensions for arm holes turned out to be super long on her.

For the ties, I folded bias tape (leftover from the arm holes) and sewed it down the middle. Worked perfectly. This was a super easy dress to start with and only took around 2-3 hours to complete. I will probably be making her another!

I guess subconsciously I bought prints that had the same colors as those I was using for her birthday party. I originally planned to make her a birthday shirt, but was glad to let the dress do double duty as an Easter and birthday outfit.

But to give it that extra birthday touch, I made her a 2 pin by layering some circles of felt (leftover from last year’s Easter basket project) and hot gluing them to an old pin button.