How to Make a Sundress Out of a Sheet

Use an attractive bedsheet to make a dress.

Look no further than your linen closet for a quick wardrobe pick-me-up this summer. You can use a solid colored or decoratively printed sheet to make your own sundress with a few alterations. The simple design of a basic sundress makes turning your old sheets into dresses a quick project with little room for errors. Show off your fashion design skills and your creative use of fabric with your new sundress.

Things You'll Need

• Measuring tape
• Scrap paper
• Pencil
• Fabric chalk
• Sewing scissors
• Straight pins
• Needle and thread or sewing machine

Instructions

1. Measure from your desired neckline to where you want the dress to end on your legs, using a measuring tape. If you are making the dress for someone else, measure her instead. This is the length you need to cut from the sheet.

2. Measure around your body at the widest point. This will depend on your body type. Usually, the hips and bust are the widest point on a woman's body.

3. Write the length and width measurements on a piece of scrap paper, using a pencil. Add as many inches to the width as you need for a comfortable fit and the ability to slip the dress on and off without buttons or zippers.

4. Draw a rectangle, using the width and length measurements, onto the sheet with fabric chalk. Add 2 inches to the length and width.

5. Cut out the rectangle with sewing scissors.

6. Fold the width edges inward by 1/2 inch and pin them in place.

7. Sew along the folded width edges with needle and thread or a sewing machine to start hems at the top and bottom of the sundress. Remove the straight pins as you sew.

8. Fold the width edges inward by another 1/2 inch. Pin them in place with straight pins.

9. Sew the folded edges once more to complete the hems. Remove the pins as you sew.

10. Fold the cut fabric in half width-wise, so that the remaining two unsewn edges meet each other, with the hems at the top and bottom. Fold it, so that the wrong side, or back side, of the fabric is facing outward.

11. Sew the raw edges together, 1 inch inward from the edges, along the entire length of the dress.

12. Measure over your shoulder from where the highest point of the dress will reach in the front to the highest point at the back.

13. Cut two strips of fabric 3 inches wide and 2 inches longer than your shoulder measurement.

14. Lay out the strips of fabric and fold the longer edges inward to meet at half the width of the 3-inch side, meeting each other along the whole length of the strip. This will give you clean, fray-free edges.

15. Fold the strips in half along where the raw edges meet to make 1-inch straps and hide the raw fabric edge completely.

16. Sew along the open edges on each strap to complete them.

17. Sew the end of each strap to the back of the dress, which should still be wrong-side out, with an "X" sewn over 1 inch of the strap and the top edge of the back of the dress.

18. Flip the dress and pull the unsewn ends of the straps to overlap the top edge of the front of the dress by 1 inch. Sew them in place with "X" stitches as well.

19. Turn the dress right-side out.