if you’re an instagram user, I’ve saved all of my sewing adventures with a bit more detail in story highlights on my account - should that ever interest you

This dress began as an attempt to use a double bed sized fitted sheet, recently returned to me by my sisters who were lovingly storing a few of my things (thanks gaiz, I love u). Lately, I’ve been falling deep into internet holes like “#thriftflip” that have led me to adorable and peppy Gen Zers who are turning landfill-bound textiles into unexpected treasures. During one such internet hole, I happened upon DIY Daisy - whose penchant for ruffles and rectangles-pieced-together garment-making process really spoke to me.

I took a look at the fitted sheet that I had and thought, “that would make a decent puff sleeve dress & I think I have the tools to make it”.

I knew how to turn a fitted sheet into flat pieces from having previously cut my parents’ raggedy old flannel sheet to braid into a rug. You cut out the elastic (and save it if you’re a lowkey hoarder like I apparently am), cut up the side seams and then you have a piece of fabric laying flat. You now have to cut off the bits that were formerly covering the depth of the mattress - so now you have 5 pieces, one big main piece and 4 smaller ones.

I very vaguely followed DIY Daisy’s schematic to eyeball how I would cut my fabric to make the dress I imagined, and when I say vaguely I really mean it because I didn’t measure.

From there, it was a series of steps that were literally “baste stitches to form gathers, sew gathered rectangle to other gathered rectangle”.

I began with the bodice - I cut a rectangle out for that, then eyeballed a neckline - I made it the same back and front (but in future I might cut the back higher to fit the neckline better). I took two very long pieces of fabric to make the sleeves - remember, you need a lot more fabric than you think, because once you gather it it will be a lot skinnier than before.

After gathering the top of the sleeve, I pinned each sleeve to the bodice with right sides together and sewed a seam (this is, I later learned, a slightly unusual way of constructing a sleeve - lol). Now I had a bodice with two sleeves not yet sewn together at their bottom seam. I gathered the bottom of the sleeve and sewed up the sleeve & the rest of the bodice.

Then, the skirt! I took another big piece of fabric (the rest of the large piece of the bedsheet) and gathered its one end, leaving the other end raw.

I followed this Wiksten infographic to stitch the bodice to the skirt & then wham bam, I made a dress.

Except that i still had to finish the neckline & bias binding intimidates me, so I let it sit for about a week while I worked up the courage.

I sewed the bias binding on & it was a pretty messy effort- but it was the first neckline I’ve ever done on my own, and I’m proud of it for that reason.