Rectangles They Can Wear!!!

For those of us who are "sewing challenged" or, as I like to think of myself, "really good at sewing straight lines," I have found the perfect thing!

My friend Jennifer in Georgia told me about pillowcase dresses last year. She said her daughter wore them over her leotard to dance class. They are also good to wear over a swimsuit, etc. I looked them up online and discovered that some people sell these things for over $50 a dress!!! Of course, they are pretty fancy. Naturally, that made me think very hard about selling some to earn money from home--but then I figured out how many of these I would have to pump out every month to make any kind of real contribution to our family finances.


So I decided to try one. I bought the pattern on e-bay for like $5 and downloaded it. Now, you can make them from any fabric, but the pattern suggested using an actual pillowcase for your first one. So I chose a pillowcase with a beautiful band of color around the bottom and here is the result. I haven't trimmed the ribbons to size yet, but I think it's pretty cute. (The bows on the shoulders are navy blue and don't show up in the picture.) All in all, the whole dress cost $1.50. You can't beat that.
I told my sister about my sewing success but told her that I probably could not ever let Little Bit actually WEAR it outside of the house. "Why?" she wanted to know. I explained to her that we used these sheets for years on our bed and every time I looked at them I would just see, you know, my bed.
Then she reminded me that some very famous people have worn drapes: the VonTrapp children (in The Sound of Music) and Scarlett O'Hara. So how bad could bed sheets be?


Good point.

There is some curving to this pattern, but since it ends up in the underarm region--is it really noticeble if it's not perfect? And you already know how I feel about that. And it you're going to wear drapes or sheets around--I think I like Carol Burnett's version the best! Now THAT'S sewing I can do!!!