T-shirt Pillowcase Dress

My husband and I are graduates of Oklahoma State University and we love going to the football games each season.  Since having Amelia, our 18 month old, I’ve noticed a major deficiency in cute game day clothes for babies.  There are very limited options in her size.... so I took matters into my own hands for the upcoming season with this t-shirt knit pillowcase dress.  

I started with on of Zach’s old t-shirts.  I know we’ve all got a few of these around the house!  I used one of Amelia’s dresses to measure out the correct size and shape (please excuse the baby hands in all my pictures!) and I just cut it right out of the shirt.

Next, I used put the “right sides” of the t-shirt together so that it was inside-out.  I used my serger to sew the two sides together.  If you don’t have a serger, a regular sewing machine will do the trick.  

Then I serged around the arm/neck opening because t-shirt knit tends to roll up when it’s being worked with so I did this in an attempt to keep it all flat.

This is what it looked like with the sides sewn together and the arm/neck openings serged around the edge.  You should have basically a tube of knit with one skinny end.

*Now I switched to my regular sewing machine*

Once the sides are together and the opening is serged, I folded the edges to the inside around the arm opening and sewed it down to make a finished arm hole.  The serging not only kept the knit from rolling, but it also gave me a little guide for turning in the edges and sewing them down.... I just followed the serged edge!

After that was done, I made a casing along the straight edge at the top for the drawstring/straps to be threaded through.  I just folded the top down about an inch and sewed along the serged edge.  Do this twice.  Once for the front and once for the back side.

Now just string a ribbon through the casing, making a “u” shape to connect the front and back and tie on one side.  You have a dress!

But I didn’t stop here because no self-respecting Cowboy Kid would wear just a plain orange dress to the game.  I had to spice it up!  

 I had a black dress in my size with all these ruffles along the bottom.  It’s not really my style, so I cut 2 rows of ruffles off to put on Amelia’s dress. Much more fitting for a toddler than a mother.

I cut down the ruffle rows to fit around the tiny toddler hem line and just sewed them right to the pillowcase dress.  Super easy.  Way easier than making my own ruffles!

Now we have a dress!

But I didn’t stop here either, because it doesn’t exactly scream Go Pokes!  So, I added some bling.  I bought black and clear iron-on crystals at a craft store, printed out the letters OSU in a font I liked and traced the letters onto the front of the dress.  You could use a water-soluble fabric pen, but I like to live dangerously and I just used a ball-point pen!

Iron the crystals on following the pen marks. 

NOW we have a DRESS!!