Bed Sheet Easter Dress

I ventured out with my family this weekend to our local Goodwill thrift store. I was specifically looking for materials to use for future projects and ended up spending most of my time in the linen aisle where they had various bed sheets and curtains displayed.  Everything was around $1.50 or so with the most expensive item being a duvet cover for $7.00. I picked out a queen size flat bed sheet with a beautiful floral detail. I was specifically excited about the amount of fabric that I could use from this item as well as the unusually beautiful print which was a mix of white, silver, blue as well as pops of yellow throughout. I brought it home, threw it in the washer and after drying it ended up with around 5 yards of fabric to use for my Easter dress.

I have a bodice block that I drafted after a great deal of tweaks to multiple test bodices that I started at the end of January of this year. I use this block because I know that it fits and I will need to do minimal adjusting to my frame depending on the type of fabric that I use with each dress.

I immediately started on my bodice using my block and my new bed sheet. I also cut out a duplicate bodice using some bleached muslin that I had in my stash for a lining.

I sewed my bodice to my lining and snipped my neckline and armscyes.

I was happy with the look of the bodice and the fit. I did not lower the neckline in the back of my dress block because I wanted a high back to show off as much of the gorgeous floral on the bed sheet as possible.

For the skirt I definitely wanted a full circle one partly because I had so much fabric to work with and also because it doesn’t get much girlier than a full circle skirt to twirl in!

For the skirt I used the skirt pattern from Butterick 5748. I have made this vintage dress before and although I did not like the bodice included in this pattern (It runs WAY too big) I was very happy with the fullness of the beautiful circle skirt included with the pattern.

The circle skirt pattern includes a full piece for the front and 2 half pieces in the back with the seam down the middle for the zipper.

I sewed up the skirt and attached it to my bodice. I then had to go to Joanne’s because I realized that I did not have a zipper long enough for the high back on my bodice. I ended up purchasing a 22 inch invisible zipper and then became distracted by all the lusciously pretty fabrics. Does anyone else have this problem?

I was very disciplined and ended up buying only the zipper and 2 yards of muslin for future projects. Haha!

After attaching my zipper, I then finished my raw edges with my overlocking foot. (I don’t have an serger so this is a good alternative to finishing up my raw edges.

I am going to wait a full 48 hours before I hem the skirt because it was cut on the bias and I want it to drop as much as possible before I hem.

This is the dress though, unhemmed but lovely. I have to say that I am very proud of this dress because if I add up the price of the bed sheet which was $1.50 and the zipper which was $2.50, the total cost of this dress was a whopping $4.00!

It also feels quite nice that I was able to upcycle this beautiful bed sheet that was most likely donated by someone who no longer saw any beauty and function in it, opting for something new and improved. I was fortunately able to make something beautiful out of something discarded and perhaps forgotten.
Anyways, I think it is lovely.

Have you ever upcycled a used item from the thrift store? I would love to hear about it! 

Leave me a comment below and have a beautiful day!