Mickey PillowCase Dresses

Well.  I am back and you didn’t even know I was gone!  How sneaky-sneaky of me?

I realized that I haven’t really blogged about Christmas yet so y’all don’t know that Santa brought the girls a trip to Disney World!  We left last Saturday and got home on Friday.  We had a fantastic trip!  I’m ready to go back.  McKenna brought home a little souvenir that we could have done without though.  A stomach bug that started at 1:30am in a hotel in South Carolina. Then Miss Avery got it.  Now I have it.  Sigh.

I promise I will blog more about the trip and post pictures as soon as I can.

But right now, I thought I would share a little project that I thought would be a good idea to start two days before we left when I had not started packing.  You know how I roll.  My name is Amanda and I am a procrastinator.

I saw this little pillowcase dress on the Handmade Home and was inspired.

I found a few tutorials online and felt like I could probably sew the dresses without too much trouble.  But when I was in Walmart buying a few last minute items for our trip, I found this pattern for $.97. 

I figured, “Why not?”  It would at least give me something to go by size wise. The pattern number is Simplicity E1952 (in case you can’t read it on the picture).

As far as sewing projects go, this one is pretty basic.  If you are a beginner, this would be a great first project!  I made a few changes to the pattern though. 

1.  Obviously, I didn’t do the whole little bee applique since we were going with a Mickey Mouse theme.

2.  McKenna needs a size 5 for length but the pattern only went to size 4.  So I added 1/2 an inch all the way around on the pattern.  I probably should have added a whole inch to the bottom.  It was a little short on her.  But she will be wearing it with leggings this winter anyway.

3.  Instead of using ribbon for the neckband, I made my own using the extra fabric from the bottom of the dress.  This is really easy.  You just cut out a long piece of fabric and fold it in half with right sides together and sew one end and the long side.

Then you flip it right-side out, press, and sew across the end.  (The wider you make the strip of fabric, the easier it will be to flip.)

Then I cut out two Mickey silhouettes from felt and tacked them to the dresses making it look like a dotted line.  I ran out of time the night before we left so I literally finished this part in the car on the way to Disney.
 
Bonus – It gave me something to do for a little while in the car!

I loved the end result and we got the most compliments on them in the park!

(Optional – you can accessorize with funky glasses from the “It’s a Bug’s Life!” attraction.  Wearing them upside down is also optional.)  Don’t they remind you of Elton John?

p.s.  I’m linking up to Home Stories A to Z, I heart Naptime, Tatertots & Jello, It’s Overflowing, Sugar Bee Crafts and Serenity Now!

p.s.s.  I’m also entering this little ditty into Sew-vivor at Family Ever After!