Recently I decided I wanted to start quilting, so I bought a cutting mat and rotary cutters, something I’ve been wanting for a long time. Wanting to make my life a little easier I also bought a collection of nautical fat quarters. They are adorable – blue with white polka dots, little whales and anchors, blue rope in a squiggly pattern, sailboats, etc. However, I was having trouble envisioning them into the quilt I wanted. I’m sure I could have if I sat and put them together, but the idea of actually cutting out all the fabric seemed super daunting. And so I turned to Pinterest (as usual) to find some other project ideas for fat quarters. My favorite by far was this adorable little pillowcase dress.

Immediately I knew what I wanted to do with the fat quarters. Following the tutorial at the link above, I cut the panels:

They vertical strips are SLIGHTLY smaller (1/2 inch) than the tutorial called for because I wanted that piece to face a certain way so that the whales and sailboats weren’t sideways.

Pressing the seams before doing the top stitching. I haven’t done a lot of top stitching but I really like the look of it when it’s finished. For this, I used navy blue thread to match the nautical theme.

Cutting the sleeves.

The basic dress, edges finished. Then I had to find something to use as the strap.

The finished product! I think it’s adorable, and it only took about an hour and a half! I also like that it’s a cute little girl’s dress, but not super frilly and bright pink (though I’ll have to make some of those, too).

I also really like the idea that I can very simply repeat this pattern using an actual pillow case. And now off I go to try a bag tutorial for fat quarters that I also found!