2 Ways To Wear A Pillowcase [What's Your Non-Fitness Hobby?]

Please, please ignore my model face. I have no idea what I’m doing. This was just the best shot of the skirt.  

“Get a hobby!” Every time I get caught up in my issues, like the other day when I complained about my waist getting bigger (Mary Kate astutely commented, “Why are you measuring it anyway? Please stop.”), you guys remind me that one of the best ways to get out of my head is to do something else. And if I can do something for someone else, even better!  (Look out Katie!) Sometimes I forget that being healthy is about so much more than being fit.

Since today it’s 91 degrees with 97% humidity and there’s an “extreme heat advisory” for the rest of the week, what better way to stay cool than a skirt? I’m a total skirt girl and wear them several times a week (on bikes even!) So when I mentioned I love making skirts out of pillowcases, several of you requested a tutorial. Two things you should know: 1) No one ever taught me to sew. This does not make a savant. It makes me a sloppy seamstress. 2) This is the easiest project ever – if I can do it, anyone could do it. Plus it’s really economical – for just a buck you can have an adorable skirt made to fit your exact shape!

Dear Men Who May Still Be Reading: I’m sorry. Tomorrow I have a totally butch post lined up with tire flipping, sledge-hammering and there’s going to be all kinds of grunting and sweating. (Yes I’m serious! I can’t wait to share this workout with you guys!) So please don’t delete me out of your reader yet.

Vintage dresses and skirts are one of my hobbies so now I want to hear about yours! Let me know in the comments what your fave hobby is outside of fitness. (P.S. I just realized that for some reason, my photo galleries are showing the captions on my site but they’re not coming through in Google Reader or through e-mail so I’m trying something new with this post. Thanks for your patience!)

Two Pillowcases. Two Tutorials. Two Ways To Wear Your Skirt. Let the fun begin! 

The “before” of the pillowcase. I found this red checked set of two for $1.99. You couldn’t even buy the fabric that cheaply. As you will see in the remainder of these pics, my 8-year-old was my photog and, well, just enjoy the 70′s vibe of unfocused shots, closed eyes and random fingers in the frame! He does get better as the night goes on.

 You see a pillowcase (love that ruffle!), I see a skirt, they see a bull fighting cape. Naturally.

Start by cutting open the seam at the top (bottom?) of the pillowcase. Fold down the top until it is the length you want. Pin sides to get desired fit. Obviously I was going for a wiggle skirt kind of look so mine’s tight. My motto is when in doubt, go tighter. My daddy’s so proud.

Make sure to check the side view to see that the hem stays even all around (learned this one the hard way!) Looking at this pic, I almost like it better inside out with the band of red at the top, ha! Also, like how I kicked all the clutter out of the camera frame so it looks like my room is all clean and stuff? Lies.

Following the guide set by pins, sew down the waist and take in the sides.

This pillowcase has quite a bit of stretch to it so I was able to just pull it over my head – no elastic or zipper required! How easy is that? The whole project took me about 2 hours. It would have been much less except that I refuse to measure so I had to pick out the side seams twice.

You like my assassin gloves? I’m like June Cleaver, the Alfred Hitchcock version.

Son #3 wanted in the pics SO BAD….

So he could do this. He’s imitating my lame-o posing. And he makes it look 100 times cuter. Stinker.

My favorite pillowcases are the vintage embroidered types like this one. (Yes, that’s all hand embroidered and crocheted! And now I’m going to totally geek out and tell you I did that myself. I love embroidery.) I had some fun gold ribbon I wanted to play with too.

I learned this cool trick from Marissa’s blog on how to make a sweetheart neckline using a safety pin to pinch the fabric together. I’m all about quick and dirty.

I cut the top off to get the desired length, hemmed the top, took in the sides about 2 inches each and then sewed gold ribbon straps on. Thanks to bad lighting it’s hard to see the cute little pinch at the neckline but it’s adorbs in real life, I swear. Oh and the pillow case was off-white and my t-shirt was bright white but there’s no contrast in the pics.

It’s so hot and humid here that the camera lens kept fogging up but I kinda like the effect. My son thought he saw a blimp. Oooh, shiny!

This whole project took about 45 minutes but would have been even faster if I hadn’t bothered to take it in and just cinched it with the belt.

I make the cutest kids ever!! I love my camera man!

So tell me about your hobby now – what do you love to do? Anyone going to try a pillowcase skirt or dress? (If you do, send me pics!!)

Written with love by Charlotte Hilton Andersen for The Great Fitness Experiment (c) 2011. If you enjoyed this, please check out my new book The Great Fitness Experiment: One Year of Trying Everythingfor more of my crazy antics and uncomfortable over-shares!