Kimono sleeve dress from thrifted bedsheet (here be dragons!)

Hey everyone,
It's been a long time since I've done any proper sewing. I've been sick, but it looks like I might finally be getting better (fingers crossed!)
So, naturally as soon as I was feeling even the slightest bit okay I started sewing again.

I'd thrifted this cream-colored bed sheet with dragons on it back in April. It cost me 3.50 euros.

I have no idea what the symbols say (if they actually say anything). Most likely it's something like "sweet dreams!" or "sleep well!" (after all, it is a bed sheet) ...but then again, it could say something like "chicken noodles" or "dragons! neat!". Either way, I got inspired by the fabric and found quite a few vintage style kimono sleeve dresses, such as By Hand London's Anna dress, this vintage pattern or this other vintage pattern. I decided to draft my own kimono sleeve pattern.

I started with a kimono / batwing sleeve shirt I already owned and drew my pattern using it as a guide.

The shirt was loose-fitting, so I added darts on the waist (like in By Hand London's Anna pattern). For the back, I wanted to add a detail inspired by this picture I found on Pinterest. I modified the idea and cut it differently than in the original. So in the end my pattern pieces looked like this:

To make sure I had enough fabric for the skirt (full circle, because duh) I cut the skirt pieces first. I cut my circle skirt pieces in thirds, so there wouldn't be side seams, but instead a seam at the back and two diagonally at the front (and pockets in the front seams, of course!)

After that, I cut the pocket pieces and a long rectangle for a waistband - and I still had plenty of fabric left for the top pieces.

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I cut the top pieces and sewed the darts and the seams on the back pieces.

Since the bedsheet was slightly see-through with just one layer, I fully lined the bodice. I cut duplicates of the bodice pieces and sewed everything together using Kitschy Coo's directions as I have before.

I assembled the skirt with pockets in the front seams, then attached the skirt to the waistband and waistband to the bodice. I added a zipper, a button closure at the top of the triangle on the back and hemmed the skirt. At the last moment I also decided to fold the sleeves up by about 1cm and top-stitched this fold.

And done!

Here's how it looks worn:

Pockets!

"Ooooh look a penny!" :D

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I'm ridiculously fond of this dress. I think it turned out pretty great!

And the cost?
- secondhand bed sheet 3.50€
- secondhand zipper 0.50€
- I got the button from a sewing/fabric exchange on Facebook.
= Altogether this project cost me 4€. Four euros!

So, what do you think of this bed sheet dress? :)

love,
Satu / Sew Scoundrel