Plans For Tomorrow's DIY Dress: How to turn bolster cases into dresses and pillowcases

 

I have been saving bolster cases for years. Not that I don't have bolsters. I have several. Some of the covers match nothing else. One of them matches a set of bedding. Two bolster cases match each other. 

I was looking for a pillow case when I pulled out the bolster cases. I thought, that's one is pretty. Could I make a dress?

I didn't have enough material. I would have to use another bolster as the dress back. I needed a second bolster cover in a similar fabric strength and sheen to the first. It must have similar colours, if not a similar pattern.

I made up three matching sets from six bolster covers. But would I ever need those bolster covers? Maybe. I ought to change the bolster case patterns every month. Instead I left them neatly folded, not wanting to spoil them by using them. 

Yes, I needed spare bolster cases. But I might die before I ever used them.  

Tim's Father's Unworn New Shirts

A friend of mine, 'Tim', told me that after his father died, Tim found packets of shirts, never used, in the cupboards. Why? I can guess why. Like my bolsters, the shirts had been saved for a special occasion - which never happened. 

So, I might one day need those bolster cases, which were, meanwhile, cluttering up the cupboard. But I did not need the neglected bolster cases one day in the distant future as much as I needed a dress - right now. I had not used the bolster covers as bolster covers in more than two years. I would definitely wear the dress for a day - as soon as I made it! They were large oblongs of fabric, but the bonus of a drawstring at one end which would make a neat neck tie.

Pattern direction

I held up the bolsters to see how they would look as a dress. Did the colours suit me? No point in making a dress in a colour which did not suit me or a pattern which looked too fussy or weird. Better to leave it as a bolster. 

In one case the flowers were sideways instead of upright. But the stalks and flowers pointed in both directions. When I looked at it as a bolster cover, the flowers were also not pointing upwards. 

Do I care? Yes. I have a duvet cover with birds. I have to place it on the bed with the birds flying the right way up when the duvet is seen from the a person standing at the base of the bed in the daytime. Once I am in bed, I go directly to sleep and don't look at the cover. 

Regarding the bolsters, the flower pattern direction had never bothered me. It was just a stylistic pattern.

A Bolster Cover As Potential Pillowcase

Eventually I went back to my task of choosing a pillow case. I wondered if the bolster could be folded in half to cover the pillow. Alas it was too short to fit all the way across the pillow. 

What if I turned it the other way? That meant a seam down the middle of the pillow. I would not like that under my face. 

I unfolded the bolster and looked again. No second side seam. So no seam was needed in the middle of the pillowcase. The bolster was designed from one piece of large fabric curved around the bolster. Why would they make a seamstress sew an extra seam when they could simply fold the material?

I now had uses for all the spare bolster cases which had been cluttering up the cupboard with the sheets. Instead I would soon have three new dresses - and a new pillowcase. 

About the Author

Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, fashionista. Please share links to your favourite posts or one or more of the blogs

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