Serendipity Studio Paige Pillowcase Dress

I made this dress last night, and I’m happy to say I was exceedingly pleased with how it turned out! It’s just fabulous! I used the Fashion Formula Dresses pattern booklet from Serendipity Studio. The booklet contains 3 different dress patterns (I made the Paige Pillowcase Dress), and the cost is $16, which I think is a really great value for 3 dress patterns. The really marvelous part of the pattern booklet (and something I have never seen before) is that you draft the bodice pattern pieces yourself using about 8 measurements that you take of your own body. It might sound complicated, but it’s not; you plug in the measurements into simple mathemetical equations to arrive at your cutting measurements. It gives you the most custom fit possible!!

The Maria Mexican Folk Dress also contains an embroidery template so you can make the exact dress pictured! It’s so beautiful!!

Forget what you may have pictured in your mind when you heard the term ‘pillowcase dress’ in the past; this is not a childish or frumpy looking dress! It is really flattering with the elastic below the bust, and the side ties at the neckline (or the pattern gives instructions for a back tied, if you’d rather do that) are really sweet and pretty!

Fabric – I used 2 yards of fabric to make this dress. The fabric is from Tula Pink’s ‘The Birds and the Bees’ new line coming out in July, and this particular fabric was voile (although it will also be coming out in laminate, and also a huge line of quilting cottons). Other than the fabric, you just need approximately 1 yard of 3/4″ elastic. That’s it!

The bodice is fully lined. I just used the same fabric for that.

The sewing pattern (like all of the Serendipity Studio patterns) contain instructions on how to customize your dress, such as make a contrasting neck and waistband, ruffles, a tiered skirt, etc. The fabric requirements for the customization is also built into the pattern instructions (such as if you’re going to make the tiered skirt). Really cool!!

I just decided to go with all one fabric, and none of the extras…I just felt like that’s the look I was going for with this particular fabric.

Pattern Pieces – As I mentioned earlier, you draft your own bodice piece using the pattern instructions. For the Paige Pillowcase Dress, you cut 2 bodice pieces and 2 skirt pieces, and that’s it for the dress portion. You also cut 2 strips on the width of the fabric to create the shoulder tie, which feeds through the casing along the neckline and creates the straps. I like these straps so much because you can tighten or loosen them based on the kind of fit you want the upper portion of the dress to have. The excess fabric that I cut off from the ties was just enough to make a matching headband…sweet!!

Illustrations/Instructions – There is a drawn illustration for each step in the pattern. I really had no doubt at all about what I was doing in any of the steps. This pattern was really super simple, and I didn’t make any modifications besides topstitching down the elastic on the side seams so the elastic doesn’t twist in the wash (as I’ve made my kids several pajama shorts, I found that out through experience, lol).

The dress is really the perfect feel with the voile. It is so light and airy for summer, and super-comfortable. Honestly I would make every summer dress in voile if I could, it’s just perfect (especially in the Tula Pink voile, ha!).

Conclusion – The Paige Pillowcase Dress took me 3 hours to make from start to finish. If you have an evening to spare, you can definitely make it! This pattern is also beginner-friendly, so if you have zero experience in sewing clothing (or even little experience sewing at all), you should be able to do it. The sewing instructions really walk you through it!