Put Scarlett O'Hara to Shame: The Pillowcase Dress

Why The Pillowcase Dress?

You’re probably wondering why anyone would want a dress made from a pillowcase. Let me explain.

A few weeks go a friend of mine was invited to an "Anything But Clothes Party." Because few people are actually willing to show up to a party naked, the point is to come up with a creative outfit made from materials that are NOT clothes. The trick is creating a look that fits with the theme of the party, but still looks good. Common outfits include trashcans, skirts made from cardboard boxes, sheets worn as ponchos, paper towel body suits, duct tape shirts and pants, and the occasional birthday suit.

After considering Scarlett O’hara’s dress (featured in the film classic Gone With the Wind) made from window drapes, my friend and I decided that a pillowcase might be a more practical solution to our dilemma. The end result was so impressive that I decided to recreate the pillowcase dress as an instructable. 

NOTE: No sewing experience? No problem! This instructable is simple and requires limited materials.

Step 1 Selecting Your Pillowcase

Pick Your Pillowcase

Unless you want an extremely short dress (or a shirt), I recommend using a king-sized pillowcase. 

Obviously, the colors of pillowcases available to purchase are limited and often neutral in nature. Therefore, you might want to consider dyeing your dress in order to add some flair and fun to your look.

Food coloring can be used if you need the dress quickly. However, if you want a more complete and professional dye job, you can make a quick purchase of some fabric dye from an arts and crafts store (i.e. Michael’s or Hobby Lobby). A fun possibility I have wanted to experiment with is a tie-dyed pillowcase dress. For more information on how to achieve this type of effect, see other instructables articles on the process of tie-dye.  

Comments

[Yellow.Orchids]

I think that this is absolutely adorable and I love the simpleness of it because it's cheap and imaginably easy to accessorize. I'm gonna try this sometime in the near future (maybe March). I will take pictures, I swear.

[cillianwall]

Oh my gosh!!! This is sooooooo cute! I can't wait to try this! I've been looking for a way to make some cuuute dresses for a hippy party next weekend. Thank u for the really good deets- and the pics help super a lot. Make more pleeze! Lolz.