Pioneer Pillowcase Dresses

The girls and I were in a pageant in our stake called the "Kirtland Pageant." It was about Joseph Smith's life up until after the Kirtland Temple was built and they were driven from their homes once again. It was a great experience for the girls and they really enjoyed it. I was having a very hard time trying to find something pioneerish looking at the thrift stores and I was starting to get nervous because dress rehearsal day

was almost upon us. While at Savers one day the light bulb went off in my brain...why not make a pillowcase dress? So I went over to the bedding and found two great pillowcases that I thought looked like it could work. I actually bought both in the set because I didn't know how if I would need to make them longer for the girls or I had also thought of making an apron as well. When I brought them home and started on the project
I realized that these must have been king size because they were extremely long! Anyway, this is what I found. I love that one of them has a ribbon on the bottom so I didn't need to add anything.

So, I grabbed a shirt for each of the girls to measure the arm holes and cut a little bit bigger for the hem.

Super bad pic, sorry! I cut open the seam and cut out the arm holes and then pinned all the way around. I sewed the hems for the arms and for the neck I made a pocket that was large enough for me to pull a ribbon through. Then I pulled my ribbon through and voila! My dresses were done. I had two ribbons on each side to be tied on each shoulder.

Here is what they look like with their aprons on. The people in the Stake had extra aprons so I didn't need to make them any, but I still might do that.

I got so many compliments on them and one lady said they were something she would let her daughter wear all the time. I thrive on those comments because I am NOT GOOD at sewing and doing crafty things. I really enjoyed making these and now I am on the constant look out for a really cute pillowcase to make another dress out of!