Pillowcase Dress

When I was living in Clarksville, MO there was this amazing little shop called The Bent Tree Gallery.  It was family owned- ‘dad’ made amazing, rustic furniture, ‘mom’ created all kinds of handicrafts and their daughter had her own shop making beautiful leather purses and other goods. Some of the many beautiful items I loved in the shop were these delicate little dresses made from vintage pillowcases.  I never bought one but kept them ‘filed’ away in my mind as something I’d love to make if I had a little girl to make them for. And voila! I not only have a lovely daughter of my own but a pretty cute niece to make all kinds of girly things for.  I’ve also been collecting vintage linens for a few years now= for no other reason than I thought they were pretty to have around.  So all of these things finally came together recently and up to my sewing room I went!

I used this pattern from Bumblebee Linens and it was surprisingly easy.  It suggested measuring your kiddo from her/his shoulder to where you want the hem to fall, but it also had a nice measuring guide if you didn’t want to measure,  or like me forgot to measure your kid and just wanted to get started(@!) The trickiest part was working with the vintage fabric. The first pillowcase I chose was pretty brittle and I had issues with it tearing. I made a second dress that came out much better. I also wasn’t quite sure how to hem the armholes so I used a combo regular and zig-zag stitch.  Here are some pics of the pillowcases I used:

I’ll be adding photos of the finished dresses soon but wanted to get this post up while I had the time. I’m thinking of adding some to my etsy site. Would you like a little pillowcase dress for a girl in your life?

Donkey Dolls

I really wanted to make something special for Big and Little for Christmas this year. I’ve been making ragdolls for a few years now (see my etsy page here) but I haven’t made one specifically for either Kiddo yet.

When I sat down to draw out what I wanted, I kept coming back to one of Big’s favorite animals -the humble donkey!  We have several neighbors who keep donkeys and we’ve been going on visits to see/feed them since he was born.   In fact, Big’s favorite before bed/nap stories are about our Neighbor “Bill” and his donkey, Salsa.   Big also loves the book, “Sebastian and the Magic Pebble” by William Steig.  So it was fitting that I’d make Big and Little each a donkey doll.  I did a little googling for a donkey rag doll to get some inspiration for my pattern but found almost none. So I was left to my own devices.

 

I started with some sketches:

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Then got to work. I was happy to find that I still had a bunch of fabric left over from when I reupholstered the dining room chairs that was the perfect shade of gray. I used red and blue fabrics from my collection for the clothes. If I had been planning ahead, I would’ve taken some photos of the dolls being constructed, but planning ahead isn’t always in the cards when you’re nursing a baby and caring for a busy 3 year old. Alas!

Anyhow, here are the finished donkeys.

Back of boy donkey’s overalls.

Handsome lad

Hellow there

Donkey love

Overall straps.

tasteful nude

Demure eyelashes

I love a nice headbow- such a feminine touch

And the skirt is removable!

I created a pattern so I’m hoping at some point to make more and possibly sell them on my etsy site. What do you think? Would you buy a donkey ragdoll?? I’d love any feedback and advice. Thanks for reading :). Samora