Vintage pillowcase turned skirt

Vintage linens are a weak spot for me - I love the soft worn feel, the muted colors, florals (and more florals!). Whenever I'm in a thrift shop I always make sure I cruise by the linens section to see what treasures are to be found. If there's lace, it gets my attention! Pretty flowers and I'm bringing it home with me. I've used them to make PJ pants, quilts, baby dresses, and now a skirt.

I found this lovely pillowcase for a mere $2.00 and knew it was destined to become more than a shelf sitter. Lovely linens deserve so much more than to collect dust on a forgotten shelf!! There was a unique, centered motif on this one that caught my eye. At first I thought it'd be great for an apron, but later I changed my mind and decided a lightweight summer skirt would be perfect! It was so easy. Here's how I did it.

First I cut the pillowcase apart at the sides and trimmed off the wide band on the opening. This gave me two panels, the front and back of the skirt. The design is horizontally oriented - so this project is made with the pillowcase in "landscape" position. Guess my body is more landscape shaped than vertical! Really, I wanted to have a gathered elastic waist I needed the extra width to draw in (because this is a quick project, remember? No fussing with zippers!).

Side seams were sewn next, then the top folded down and stitched to form a 1" casing for elastic. I cut the trim off another pillowcase and sewed that to the bottom edge for a pretty lace hem. Last I pulled my elastic through to fit and voila! It's perfect for a spring tea party, don't you think?

The rest of the pillowcase that the lace edging was taken from is another vintage-rescue project in the works - this time it's ALL lace!. I'll show that to you soon! You'll love it!

Happy creating!