in this video I'm going to be showing you how to make this cute little dress out of a vintage pillowcase so what you'll need you will need one of your pillowcases that you have found at a secondhand store you will need a needle and thread you'll need a few buttons a size G hook and some coordinating yarn now when you I would suggest that you find your pillowcase first and then you go and match your yarn to that it's a lot easier to do that than to try to match fabric to a chosen yarn and then you can either have a sewing machine for the edges but I will also show you how to be finishing it all with needle and thread so this can be totally no sewing machine if you would like so come along as I show you how to make this cute little dress this is my piece of vintage fabric that I just cut out of an old pillowcase so it has two sides this piece is 20 by 15 which would be for about a 12 month old girl so this top edge would be the waist or around her chest so you will take a measurement of your little girl and you will make the long end two and a half times the waist the chest measurement that you took and then the short end will be however long your preference is to make the skirt this one is going to be like mid calf length so I've made it longer but it's totally up to your preference if you want to make it any length or shorter I will show you how to finish the ends with a sewing machine or by hand either way will look very nice when done so let's get right to it and I'll show you how to start sewing up the side seams one-side I will show you was done with the sewing machine and I marked 1/2 inch from the side with pins and then I just sewed that with a matching thread on my sewing machine so this side is for those of you who don't want to use a sewing machine or don't have one you will just mark all the way down a half an inch in and then you will take your matching thread and you will use this in an out method which I will show you plus then you will have the satisfaction of telling anyone who says what a beautiful dress that is that it was hand-stitched and it doesn't take that long so you go in out and you get it all up on your needle like that and you try to just make like little 8-inch stitches if you can see what I'm doing and then what's your needle is full you'll pull it through and I am using a double length of thread so that this stitch line will be more sturdy and then you will just keep doing that all the way down if you like it's not necessary if you want it to be even more sturdy you can go back again to do two lines of stitching but I don't think it's necessary since you're using two lengths of thread and then we will come back when you have gotten all the way to the end after you finished sewing up the side seam you will do a knot at the end and then we will go on to making our hem on the long end so the first step is to take your iron and then iron this down one half inch after you've ironed the whole length all the way around one half inch down you will mark another inch down and iron it again and then this is where another personal preference comes in you can choose to finish this with your sewing machine or you can hand stitch it and I will show you how to do a hem stitch right now so real quick I'm going to show you how to thread your needle so that you don't have to tie a knot at the end this piece of thread um is doubled over match the the two ends together and then you will thread your needle right onto these ends and then as you can see you have a loop at the end and so now let's go right into our hem so you have your needle with the loop at the end and I've already done some of the hem what you will do it's called tacking or a hem stitch you will just barely come through the front of your material like this and then you will catch the hem part that's ironed over now these are all this little stitch we just made was only about an eighth of an inch see now instead of making a knot you can just run your needle right through that loop and pull it and no not required so go down from that stitch about a half and half an inch if you need to mark with a pen or or some pins that would be good too if you need to but I just like to eyeball my stitches so again I'm going to show you you just barely barely catch the front of the material and then run your needle through that ironed hem part and then you once you've done a few stitches just go back and pull it a little taut and then as you can see on this side you can barely see those stitches it's a very nice professional finished hem so just continue doing that all the way around when you need to get some more thread you can do I'll just show you how to do a knot really quick in case you didn't know you leave up a little loop and then you go back and you leave up a little loop and then go through the loop again so you've made three loops that you've went through and then you just pull it down and then that makes your knot and then you can run your needle through like this you can see my knots a little messy but the idea is correct and then you just cut it like that and then you can rethread your needle with the loop at the end again and then just start right here with your hem stitch again and then we will come back when you have completely finished the hem alright now that we have finished the hem on the bottom end we're going to be working on the top part that will be attached to the bodice the crochet part so what I've done is I took my iron and iron down the whole top about 1/3 of an inch and you can either finish this by hand the way I showed you in and out in and out I actually finished this with my sewing machine but it's totally up to you this part won't show so I just sewed down this 1/3 inch part now we are going to be doing our gathers and I took a piece of thread that's at least as long as all the way around is your top so it's going to be a pretty long piece of thread so we're going to be gathering up the top so you will go right underneath your stitches that you've made and you want your stitches to be really wide so that it will gather so I would say at least a half an inch wide now this does not have a loop at the end because you're not going to attach it like a knot so just keep pulling it through to the end and then leave another half inch and try to stay about 1/4 of an inch below the stitches that you've made so it's a nice even gather and then just pull it all the way through and I apologize that this thread is so light you can barely see it so I'm just going to keep taking my half-inch stitches about 1/4 of an inch below where I just went and then once you've gone all the way around we will come back and I will show you how to pull up your gathers so I've come all the way back around with my one piece of thread with my gathering stitch while you are holding one end pull on the other end and it will start to gather up and it makes these nice big soft gathers don't forget to hold onto this end or you'll pull out what you've done or you can hold onto both ends and just pull it makes these nice soft gathers and we will adjust the gathers um but for now you can just leave it like that until our top part is finished and so now we will move on to the bodice now just a word about sizing before we continue on with the bodice this is the size that we will be making right here the smallest size is good for I would say up to nine months if they're really tiny but a private six months the best and these measurements and stitches will make more sense as we go along but if you have watched my channel before this is the same bodice that I've made on several of my other dresses it will just be slightly different in this portion but this is what you will start with the foundation chain this is the size we will be making so we will be starting with a chain forty so if you want to take a screenshot of this to remind yourself of what we're doing this is the 2t size now these are not hard and fast measurements these are not going to work for every child I would strongly suggest that you take these measurements and just use them as a guideline and hold it up to your child as you go along or if the child is not with you maybe you could ask their mother for a piece of clothing that fits them really well that works good too so these are just suggestions of what to start with so let's go on and do it foundation chain of 40 and then we will come back I've done my foundation chain and now you will skip the first chain in the hook and go to the second one and make a single crochet and you are going to make one single crochet into every stitch all the way across when you get to the end you will chain 1 turn your work and in the second stitch from your hook you will continue on making single crochets for another row by skipping a stitch in chaining one that makes all of your edges nice and square so that they won't go in on to you or decrease when you come to the end of the row just do what you did on the last row chain 1 turn your work 2nd stitch from the hook continue on with your single crochets alright so at the end of this row you will chain 3 because that's counts as your first double crochet and chain 1 so turn your work skip the first two chains yarn over and make a double crochet and then you've made your first square this is where your ribbon is going to go through so chain one yarn over skip a stitch and make a double crochet chain one yarn over skip a stitch double crochet and then you will continue that pattern all the way to the end at the end you will chain one turn your work skip this first stitch right here and then continue on doing your single crochets and you will do six rows of these single crochets just like you did three here you will do six rows of your chain forty single crochets so I have done six rows of single crochet on top of my double crochet row and now we will be doing our decreases on each edge so that the edge will slightly curved inward for the armhole so instead of doing a chain one on the end you will just turn your work skip a stitch and make a single crochet in the next stitch and that will make a nice curve as we go along so make one single crochet into every stitch and tie it to the end at the end of this row you will be making another decrease so turn your work skip a stitch and continue on with your single crochets so for the 12 to 18-month size that we are making we are going to be doing nine rows of a decrease on each edge so go ahead and look back to your pattern it was this is the portion that we are doing right now the nine rows of one decrease on each end so we've done all of this already and we are at this portion so we will come back after you finished your nine rows of a decrease on each end all right so I finished the nine rows with the decrease on each side so this is what our piece looks like so far so now we will start making square edges again and we're going to do three rows so chain one skip the first stitch and this is where you will want to mark where you want your neck line to go because this is a piece we're working on right now wait for my camera to focus it's these three rows right here so there will be it'll be straight on both sides so we're working this is the top of the neckline so what we can do is you fold your piece in half like this and you mark where the center is just like that then you will count to the side I figured before that I will want about ten open like this but you can have your neckline be as big as you want so I'm going to count over to right here and that's where I will stop doing my single crochet is right there so that's all personal preference as to how big you want your neckline to be it can be bigger if you're doing it for a larger an older child or smaller if you're doing it for a newborn so I've left five stitches open right here so with my middle stitch that the needle is in that's going to mean that I'm leaving eleven stitches open for the neckline and I want to continue making decreases on this side so it will make a nice rounded neckline so rather than make a square edge I'm going to skip the first stitch and continue on so when you come to this end you're going to make a square edge and when you come to this side you will continue making a decrease so we're working on these three rows right here decreases on this side straight edge on this side and once you've done those three rows like that we will come back alright so I did my three rows of decreases right here and if you want to make a fourth row decrease that would be okay too because then you would just end up back here on this side so you can do three or four rows of decreases here it's totally personal preference and then just start making straight edges on both sides and then this is the part we're working on right here so we're going to be making eight rows straight on each side of single crochet and then that's where I'm working on right here and then we'll come back when you have that done this is what the finished strap looks like and we're going to be doing the same thing on the other side and it's really important that you start your strap with your bodice facing this way because you want your stitches to continue being faced the same way so don't turn it around and start from the edge this way your stitches won't match up they will all look the same so what I did was I tied a tiny little knot right there and I pulled up a loop and then I'm going to make one chain just like that and ended up that skipping eight stitches was better than eleven because then by folding it in half it will make this strap the same as the other one so make sure you're folding it in half and that the two sides look exactly the same as you go along that's what happens when I go Shay I just kind of make it up as I go along and kind of alter it as I go so after you've done your first chain we're going to be catching this little piece of yarn into our work so make a single crochet come in underneath the piece of yarn pull up your single crochet and then you don't have to worry about cutting this or tying this or anything because it's just worked inside of your single crochets so you will continue to make this strap the same as you did this one so you're going to be making your three or four decreases right here depending on your preference and your straight edges on this side and then once you have this strap made then we will come back so now that you finished your first side you will go ahead and do another one exactly like it so that you'll have two pieces to make your bodice with put your right sides together and then if you've left ends on that that's okay if you didn't just use this putting yarn needle on here and start your whip stitch meaning you will go just in out in out like a candy cane stitch or if you prefer you can use your sewing machine and just sew right along the V very very edge with some white thread and you'll do that on the sides down here as well be sure not to start sewing up here start sewing only on the straight edge right here so that your armhole will stay open and then turn it right-side out and then your bodice will be de finished being sewn so out of the material that you have left off of your pillowcase you're going to want to cut a 2 inch by 21 inch rectangle and you will cut two of those and then you will sew it right down the middle and you can use your hand needle and thread if you would like to I just used my sewing machine but it's totally doable with hand sewing as well and so what you're going to do is you're going to make a 1/3 inch seam right down the middle you'll fold it right down the middle and iron it and then sew it and then I have one of these things that turns it inside out so that makes it really easy to turn inside out not quite sure what these are called but then turn it inside out when you've got the same stone and then iron it down flat so that the seam is in the middle and then I'll show you what that looks like when we're done alright so what I did was I turned it right side out and then I earned it with the seam right down the middle then I turned in the edges I tucked them in ironed it flat and then I took a needle and thread and just did a little whip stitch on the end so it's kind of like an invisible stitch and I did that on both ends and then when we are ready we will weave it through on our on our bodice all right so the next step is lay out your bodice right sides out and then take your gathers and gather it up so that it's the same size as the bodice and then as you can see on the side I just tied a knot of the two threads so that it will stay the width that I would like it to do so go ahead and gather it up to the right width and and knot it so the next step is to pull your gather so they're all nice and evenly spaced and then mark the fourths of the skirt so the side seams will be at used as a pin mark and then fold it in half so that you can find the exact front the exact back with the pin do the same to the bodice fold it in half the side seams will be matched with these side seams and then you will match the pin the pins together and so I want you to pin at least four spots the side seams front and back and then we'll come back so now after you have it all pinned together you will go ahead and take your needle and thread and you will just catch it through the foundation chain and right underneath into the material and just straighten out the gathers as you go as long as you have it pinned at the fourth marks then it will be okay because just even up your gathers if you prefer you can sew this with the sewing machine take a little bit of your white thread and just sew it right above the foundation chain and your white thread or it works just as well with your hand needle and thread and then once you have that sewn on then we will come back alright so now that we have the skirt sewn on let's start working on the final edging of the sleeves in the neck so what I've done is I've just did a little knot right here at the seam and I pulled up a loop and now I'm going to do just one chain and that counts as your first single crochet around and I'm going to be catching this end into our work so that we don't have to bother with a yarn needle later so into every row make one single crochet and this will be the foundation of the little ruffle that we're going to be doing so just continue making one single crochet into every row around the sleeves so I've come all the way around with my single crochets now you will start with a chain three and you will skip two of your single crochet go into the next one and make a single crochet so we're going to go around making these little loops so chain three skip to make a single crochet and then continue that pattern all the way until you come back to your first loop after you've come all the way around with your loops yarn over and you're going to be doing some double crochets so make a double crochet chain one double crochet chain one double crochet and so you're making a little shell just like that in the next loop make a single crochet yarn over and repeat the shell that you just did so it's double crochet chain one double crochet chain one double crochet and single crochet into the next loop and so you will repeat that pattern all the way around so to end your shells you will just make a slip stitch into your very first single crochet that you have there so pull up your last loop oops and then pull it through and there you go and then take your yarn needle and weave this end into the inside so that it won't show at all now we're going to start on the neckline so we will pull up a loop or just pull through the end first or I like to tie a little knot right here in the corner and that's all personal preference you don't have to tie a knot you can just pull up a loop and start that way so here we go we have a little knot in the corner and we're just going to be doing the same thing that we did around the sleeves so pull up a loop make a chain and then be sure to catch your end in when you're making your single crochets and just make one single crochet into every stitch all the way around now this is a matter of personal preference too as we are going around finishing the edge of our neckline when you come to the square corners in the very corner stitch if you choose to do so you can make a double crochet and that just makes your edge a little softer makes it more circular if you like the square edge just continue with the single crochets all the way around but if you want to go ahead and take a double crochet in the square corners to make your neckline more round so to finish off the dress I just wove in our little ribbon that we made into our double crochet row and then I tied a knot right there and then I also put some buttons on the top which is totally optional but I think it gives it a nice finishing touch and then this is the finished dress and I had a lot of fun making this and I hope you have a lot of fun making this as well it's really easy to adjust to different sizes so have fun searching for some vintage pillowcases and make this cute simple dress bye everyone thanks for watching