Twice Blessed

I don’t know if you’ve seen or heard all the hype about pillowcase dresses (making little girls dresses out of pillowcases for those that haven’t), but thanks be to whoever got that ball rollin’ because that’s where I got the inspiration for our girls baptismal gowns.  You see, right after the twins were born I was given a very old pillowcase made by my great-aunt.  My first thought was, “Pretty, but what am I going to do with one pillowcase?”.  My second thought, hours later and right before I handed it down to someone else more appreciative was, “Omgosh!  Pinterest!  Pillowcase dresses!  It’s a future set of baptismal gowns!”.  And then of course my third thought, “How the heck am I going to make them?  I’ve never made a dress in my life!”  Enter the creative genius and source of my ambition and courage, my sis Farrah.

Following is our rendition of the pillowcase dress trend.  Farrah did most of the work while I either slept or nursed, my two priorities these days, so to her I am eternally grateful.  Here we are with the oldie but goodie: My favorite part of the case was the gorgeous lace around the open end, darned entirely by my great-aunt.  I loved that fact and the special, sentimental value that would be built into the dresses.

So, since we needed to get two dresses out of one pillowcase, the first step was to fold it in half lengthwise and cut down the fold. So far, so good.  Easy-peasy.

Next we had to cut out the neckline and arm holes.  Since we didn’t have an official pattern to go by, we simply grabbed a newborn outfit with a top outline similar to what we were going for and traced it onto the fabric.  We also made sure to pin the unhemmed side of the dresses together to prevent shifting.

To make sure each side was exactly the same, we traced one arm hole…

then folded the entire piece of fabric in half lengthwise…

and cut.

Times two and we had the beginnings of what were beginning to look like dresses.

Next, we (she, Farrah) sewed the unfinished side of each dress up along with the tops of the straps and put a tiny hem around the unfinished arm and neck holes by simply folding and sewing.  We didn’t worry about folding the seams over twice, which would’ve been the “professional” thing to do, because it was hard enough to fold the seams over once making tiny hems and it would’ve required more seam allowances than we had.

All sewn!

See the teeny tiny hem?

Next up, sleeves.  I really wanted a simple ruffle instead of an actual sleeve so Farrah folded the excess pillowcase fabric to create four layers…

cut out the shape shown below, best described as a quarter of an oval, cut it out…

sewed two parallel basting stitches on the straight edge, and pulled to create these: 

Then she pinned and sewed them onto the dress.  After much deliberation (seriously, it took us forever to make up our minds), we decided to go vintage and left the edges of the sleeves raw  instead of hemming them.

So, at this point, the dresses were pretty much finished except that there was no way the twins heads would fit through the tiny head holes without some sort of additional opening.  I decided that the easiest way to add some room would be to cut a six inch slit up the back of each dress and then add some ribbon to secure them once on.  Zippers or buttons would’ve worked even better but I have yet to learn all about buttonholes and zippers still scare me…

Two cuts, 12 ribbons (blue for Mama Mary), and a sewing machine later and the dresses were finished…two days before their debut.

Here are the girls in all their angelic, peaceful, newly-minted Christian splendor…funny because the middle picture was actually taken after they acquired their sainthood whereas the two outside, angelic ones were taken before sooo, in case you were wondering, apparently just because you’re a saint doesn’t mean world peace, smiles, and happiness 24/7, it just means you now have the edifying task of making your parents saints… 

Godparents, Fr. Dan, Megan Rose, Dan, and Lauren – always inspiring us to become better, holier people.  The twins are so blessed to have them as prayer warriors and incredible examples.

 

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I’ll be back sometime this week with a little tutorial on how I made their headbands so don’t stay away long!  Until then, have a great weekend!