Candy Corn Pillowcase Dresses - Tutorial

I've been wanting to make pillowcase dresses for my girls for a while so a quick and easy Halloween dress seemed like the perfect opportunity. These were very easy to sew up and turned out cuter than I expected. We ran outside during the one unseasonably warm day we had this week to get pictures. Most likely they will be wearing this with a shirt underneath for the rest of the season. 

My girls like to come up with their own poses so here is my favorite. I was just happy that they weren't fighting.

The ribbon ties feed through the front and the back and tie on one side of the dress.

Peek-a-boo where's Abby? haha They were pretty proud of themselves for coming up with this pose.

Want to make one for the little lady in your life? Here's how.

I started by measuring the length of each girl from collar bone to knees then I added about 2 inches to cover all my seam allowances. If you are just doing one color this is a much simpler dress, but since I wanted my girls to look like giant pieces of candy we had to do some math.

I wanted the orange to be the longest, then yellow then white just like the candy. I used broadcloth to make mine which happens to come 22" across on the fold and that's the same width as a standard size pillow so I just cut straight across the full width of the fabric. This is what it should look like.

Start by sewing the 3 panels together with the right sides together. Make sure you keep them in the correct order. You will want to serge or zigzag stitch the seams so that it doesn't slowly unravel. You will want to serge/zigzag stitch along the top of the white panel as well. 

This is what the back will look like once it is serged together.

Once that was done I flipped it over and top stitched along the layers so the serged part would lay flat. This isn't necessary unless you have a kid like mine that hates the feeling of seems.

Next you will fold the fabric in half right sides together and sew (and serge) down the side seam to create a tube.

Reposition the dress so that the seam runs straight down the back of the dress.

Next you will fold the tube in half along the center seam to mark off the arm area.

For both dresses I started my line about 2 inches in and stopped about 1/4" before the orange seam. I just marked mine with pencil because this is the inside and will never be seen. Once the line is drawn, cut along the line through all the folded layers.

This is what it will look like once you unfold it. This way the arm cutouts will be completely symmetrical.

While the dress is still inside out fold over the white edge about an inch (or as much as you need to create a casing for your ribbon) and sew as close the the serged/finished edge as possible. You will want to do this on both the front and back.

Now take your ribbon and attach a safety pin to one end. With the dress turned right side out you will feed the ribbon through the front and them through the back leaving both ends of the ribbon hanging out of the same side of the dress. You will need to heat seal of add fray check to the ends of the ribbon to prevent fraying.

Once I had my dress assembled I tried it on and realized that it was a little shorter than I would have liked so I decided to add a ruffle to the bottom to add extra length. In the end I like it ruffled better so we can pretend that was my plan all along or you can finish the bottom of the orange panel and call it a day.

If you want the ruffle, here's how. You can easily ruffle without a ruffle foot by setting your machine to the highest tension and the longest stitch them running your fabric through. For the ruffle measurement you will want to measure your dress across and multiply that by 4. Since mine is 22" across my fabric was 88" long and 7" wide. I folded it in half before I ruffled it. It may require you to sew a couple lengths together to get the full amount.

Once you have it ruffled pin it to the bottom of the dress right sides together and sew all the way around. I serged the edge to finish it and top stitched along the ruffle so it would lay down. Sorry I forgot to take pictures of this part.

Now your little one will be all set to run and play looking as "sweet" as can be. If you make one up for your little lady I'd love for you to stop by and leave the link. Hope you find this tutorial helpful. :)

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