Dress to Impress

My brother is getting married in a few months!! Me being the genius I am, I volunteered to help out with a lot of the wedding stuff since I used to work in the wedding industry and I'm so crafty. Plus they want the whole shebang to be fairly budget-friendly. One of the things I got roped into doing (because I can't say no to people) was making the flower girl dress. What was I thinking? They decided on having a rustic country wedding so I thought a pillowcase dress would be precious. Welllll...I've never made a pillowcase dress before so I figured it would be a good idea to make a prototype. I started out looking for what do to from Pinterest, but ended up making my own. Here's my version...

I'm going to go ahead and warn you that it was my first time making this dress so I made a few mistakes. But hey, we learn from our mistakes right? 

Disclaimer: This isn't really a tutorial so much as a "what I did to make this" kinda thing...

My fabric and ribbon (from the sale bin)

The adorable flower girl (the bride's niece) is 5, so I measured the fabric to be 23" in length, plus 2" to allow for seams. The width is about 36" 

If you fold the fabric in half to be 25" x 18" you can see about what size the finished product will be.

Fold under the bottom to make a seam and sew along the edge.

At the top of the dress, you will need to fold down a larger seam allowance (big enough for your ribbon to run through the entire length) 

Showing the ribbon allowance

Next I folded the fabric in half and made it inside out to sew it. Make sure to start directly BELOW the folded ribbon part from the top! If you sew it up, the ribbon won't have a hole to go through.

I went back to where the ribbon hole is going to be and put about 4 stitches in the top so the hole would be finished off. 

This is what the dress looked like at this point...not much to see, but it'll take shape in just a minute.

I almost forgot the arm holes!! That would have been hard to get into without them. 

I cut a triangle-shaped hole into each side. It was about 2" across by 5" down.

I turned the dress inside out again and carefully folded down the seam to sew the arm holes.

I forgot to take a pic of me putting the ribbon through the holes (I'm only human). But it's really simple to do. Just measure out about how long you need the ribbon for each side. Take your two pieces of ribbon and lead them through the holes. Kinda scrunch it together to form a neck hole. Then tie bows and PRESTO you have a fabulous pillowcase dress!! 

I can't wait to make the munchkin try it on! I'll post pics when I can manage to wrangle her into it. 

Using Your Head{board}

I recently decided what I wanted to do for my "big girl job." Yay me, but I have to go back to school to get my Masters degree. I moved back in with my parents to save money while going back to school...yeah, I'm THAT person. When I moved back, I decided to make my own headboard since I didn't have one in my tiny apartment. The rest of my room is kinda country/rustic, using aqua, yellow, gray, and white colors. I wanted to do something original. I love Pinterest, but I don't like stuff that everyone else in the world has. I like to be different. So I found this really cool broken arch that had been out in our garden forever. As you can tell, it's only half of an arch and wasn't salvageable to do it's original job anymore. It was white in a previous life, but after 20 years outside it was looking a little gray.

First, we had to sand it down a little to make sure all the sides were smooth, and to get off all the moss that had found a home on it. 

I frequently give my dad puppy dog eyes to help out on my projects. I'm infamous for guilt tripping him, but he's a good sport. Plus, I'm kind of a klutz and would probably staple my finger if left unsupervised.

Next, we got out the spray cans and painted that puppy white. 

(I'm rocking my camo hat & boots this day)

While the paint was still tacky, we used an old rag to take off some paint to give it a bit of a "weathered" look.

Finished product.

We (mostly my dad) hung some small "L" brackets on the wall to secure the headboard.

The finished product!

The best thing about this project was that it was FREE! I'm a cheapskate, so the cheaper the better. We already had the sandpaper and white spray paint so we just had to add a little elbow grease and love. 

*An important message: if you have anything that's been outside for 20+ years, it's a really good idea to spray it down with bug spray. I possibly had a few ants crawl out after we hung it. We sprayed it then and HUNDREDS of ants came out and died on my bed. I freaked out and washed my bedding about 10 times before I would sleep on it. Even now I sleep with one eye open, just waiting for an ambush.