About ten years ago (I have no idea how it could have been that long!) I made a tunic for my friend Diane.
It was a very different style from this – a mid-thigh length a-line style, with short raglan sleeves. But, it was made from the most excellent vintage bedsheet that I’d found on Ebay – about thirty years old (then), but brand new and still in its original packaging.
Diane has been wearing a couple of my new tunics for a while now, and we’d already been talking about making a dress from her own fabric, when I spotted it. Forty years old now, and very much worn and faded, but very definitely the same design of sheet!
And so, a brand new dress was born from a gloriously patterned bedsheet that’s nearly as old as me.
I used the full width of the double sheet, so that I could get as much of the lovely deep border as possible running around the hem of the dress. The pockets are made from one of the matching pillowcases, so that I could get an extra little bit of that border design in.
I also made a slight alteration to the sizing. Diane very kindly sent me some photos of her wearing one of the tunics so I could see the fit, and we decided to add just a little bit of width through the body of the dress to give it an extra edge of floatiness throughout the summer. I’d made a simple sash belt to go with Diane’s tunic all those years ago, so it only seemed right to make another one to go with her brand new dress.
Vintage bedding is very much in demand at the moment, so it’s getting more and more difficult to snap up great designs like this at an affordable price. It really was a most excellent find, and I hope Diane thinks that it makes a most excellent dress!