Pillowcase PJ's

For some odd reason my mother has given me 5 or 6 new pillowcases in different colors and sizes. I'm not sure what she was doing or thinking when she picked them up but her craziness was my gain in this instance. Now I have an abundance of pillowcases, and some of them aren't in matching colors of my bedroom or the kids room. Evan Grace needed pj's though and this over sized pillowcase had more than enough fabric to refashion.

I cut the bottom border of the pillowcase off (the part that's open for sliding the pillow in). The top part of the pillowcase needs to be cut open, if you have an extra long pillowcase like I do you may want to take more length off, which you can do either from the top or the bottom.

Now, pick a side, the top of the bottom part of the pillowcase and turn down about an inch of fabric and sew into place. Leave a 3'' opening for inserting the elastic.

Measure around your little one's chest where you want the top of the pj dress to sit and add 1'' to your measurement. Cut your elastic this length. Snap a safety pin to one end of your elastic and thread through the pocket you created by turning down 1'' and sewing. (Excuse the crazy mess of threads, I did cut that off before finishing). When you've threaded your elastic all the way through, sew the ends together with a zigzag stitch to make it strong then sew the opening closed.

Take the border of the pillowcase that you cut off in step one and cut it in half length wise. I used these pieces to make the straps. Fold right sides together and sew down the outside edge. Turn right side out, fold up the edges and sew into place. I didn't take any measurement for this step because it all depends on your little tykes measurements.

I had so much fabric leftover I was able to sew a ruffle onto the bottom of the nightgown.

A tip to consider: Sew the straps to the front first, then try it on your little one to pin the back part of the straps into place, BUT pull the straps on the back in towards the middle some. This really helps keep the straps from falling off the shoulder.