The Pillowcase Dress Obsession Revealed!

I mentioned in a previous post my latest obsession for making pillowcase dresses. To illustrate the madness, my partner and I took the girls to the park this afternoon for a candy-bribed photo shoot. I have made a freakin' lot of pillowcase dresses, y'all.

One thing I really like about the pillowcase dresses is their versatility. It's partly the fact that for the armholes, I made a casing for a drawstring ribbon so that you can adjust the fit for length and width, but it's also, I think, the fact that the style is so classic that it works as a dress or a top. This dress that Sydney's wearing, for instance, would be a long dress on a one-year-old, probably, and would just get gradually shorter until it's a swingy little top on a five-year-old. On Sydney it's just the right length to show off her chubby little Sydney knees:I also like a lot how you can adjust the fit with the ribbon ties. On these matching dresses I made for the girls, I made them a little big on them on purpose, so I scrunch the underarm material down and tie the shoulder ribbons for a pretty high neckline: On this dress, though, I tied the shoulder ribbons really loose for a much wider neckline: And yes, because I'm totally nuts I made matching drawstring bags out of leftover pillowcase material for almost all the dresses:
I finally decided that I liked this narrow ribbon best for the shoulder ties. You can tie it in a really tight knot, if you want, so that your kiddo can't pick it out or so you can leave it the exact same size through several washes, or you can tie it in just a bow and be able to undo it quickly and easily:
This one, of course, is Willow's most absolute favorite. Is she too far away, or can you see the dinosaurs? Oh, and see her brand-new tricycle? Donated by a neighbor, after he bought his daughter a big-girl bike and then heard me holding court at the pool about our recent theft. I tell ya, people can be nice.
Do you see the cross-stitch on this pillowcase? It kills me!

So, yeah, that's a lot of pillowcase dresses for two little girls. We'll be keeping some of them, the matching dresses and the dino dress for sure, but I'm going to have to list most of these on etsy. I know there are lots more vintage pillowcases in the world, and I have to make room!