Meet the designer turning vintage Disney sheets into wearable styles loved by thousands
Kate Tully EllsworthInstagram is home to thousands of talented crafters, but few manage to consistently crack into viral territory. Kelsey Swarthout, the colorful and creative designer behind Rope Drop Design, has carved out her niche on the site, garnering more than 333,000 followers who actively engage with — and fawn over — her incredible designs.
“I never really set out to have such a large following,” Kelsey told me. “I was kind of just building this community of people who like the same thing as me.”
Many of Kelsey’s stunning creations are inspired by Disney darlings: Ariel, Pocahontas, Snow White, and even Roger Rabbit. Even better, nearly every design is made from upcycled sheets, sleeping bags, pillowcases, and comforters, so there’s very little waste in Kelsey’s business model.
As a quilter, I first started following Kelsey in February 2024 after I saw a Snow White-inspired jacket she had made from an old sleeping bag. Over the past two years, she has consistently posted stunning designs from vintage finds — a Lizzie McGuire jacket made from an old sleeping bag, a vest made from "Beauty and the Beast" sheets, and even a sweater made from a Snow White blanket.
It’s hard to scroll through Kelsey’s Instagram and think anything other than, “This is COOL.”
I sat down with Kelsey to talk about her designs, her rise to social media fame, and her upcoming book, which is the first time she has ever published her viral sewing patterns.
Getting started: A family sewing affair
The clothing featured on Kelsey’s Instagram page is impeccable — crisp seams, stunning picture placement, and sharp corners. But that skill doesn’t develop overnight; Kelsey has been sewing for as long as she can remember.
“I’ve been sewing since I was a kid, basically, because my mom has always been sewing,” Kelsey said. “Her mom was a sewist, so is my sister. Our whole family has always just kind of been sewing.”
It started as a hobby — she'd alter her own clothes or make small projects here and there, but it wasn’t until college that sewing started looking more like a full-time occupation.
“In college, I got my own sewing machine, and that’s when I got more into making my own clothes from scratch and learning how to make my own patterns,” she said. “But still, I never really considered that I would be doing this as a job full-time.”
Finding friends (then fame) through fandom
Kelsey is a self-described lifelong Disney fan. Her room is covered in vintage Disney finds — Cinderella wallpaper lines the top of her walls, Bambi curtains shroud her windows, and an adorable pink Disney Princess TV sits on her fabric storage shelves. After college, she moved to LA, right next to one of her favorite places on earth: Disneyland.
“I made my Instagram as just a place to share my sewing things I was making for Disney,” she explained. “I was making mouse ears just for myself and I had found a vintage Mickey Mouse bedsheet on eBay that was so cool — the print was so awesome. I made a pair of ears out of it, and I still had so much material left over, so I was like OK, well, I should just make a matching dress.”
She finished the set and posted an accompanying video on Instagram, and it immediately blew up.
“People were really interested in it, and it opened up this world of possibilities for me, of all these really cool, unique, secondhand bedding and fabric,” she said. “So I just kind of kept making it, then started making it for other people.”
As a millennial who grew up in the ‘90s and owned many of the sheets that Kelsey upcycles, I am firmly planted in the middle of her target market. She manages to brilliantly tap into the ‘90s Disney nostalgia we all still hold close. Her pieces are not just colorful and fun — they're unique, dripping with personality and memories from childhood.
A star-fueled social media surge
In 2025, Kelsey was asked to create a dress by one of her biggest fans: Danielle Fishel, who played Topanga in “Boy Meets World” and competed in the most recent season of “Dancing with the Stars.” Danielle planned to dance to “I Wanna Be Like You” from “The Jungle Book," so she wanted a matching dress to wear during a visit to Disneyland.
“I had been a fan and follower of Kelsey on social media for quite some time, so when Disney week on ‘Dancing with the Stars’ came up, I knew it was a perfect opportunity to wear something truly unique and special,” Danielle said.
Kelsey immediately hunted for the perfect vintage sheet, one that both she and Danielle instantly fell in love with.
“The day they were filming at Disneyland, she actually invited me to come and talk to them and see some of the filming,” Kelsey said. She gushed about how kind Danielle was, even noting that she pulled Kelsey into a shot to help spotlight her work and uplift her platform. “It was just so sweet that she even considered me and wanted to include me in the process.”
Danielle was equally enamored with Kelsey and the incredible work she did on the dress.
“I was also thrilled to give Kelsey that big of a platform to showcase her talent and incredible skillset,” Danielle said. “I love small business owners and especially love supporting women-owned businesses, so it was a perfect confluence of events that culminated in one beautiful dress and a celebration of Kelsey's talent and Disney all in one.”
Following the debut of Kelsey’s dress on “Dancing with the Stars,” Kelsey’s follower count grew further.
“So happy to have so many new friends here and I can’t thank y’all enough for sharing in my excitement over this experience,” she wrote alongside a spotlight People Magazine wrote about the dress.
Sustainability is at the heart of Rope Drop Design
Whether she’s making a dress for Danielle Fishel or one of her devoted followers, you can expect them to be made from upcycled materials, or vintage pieces that are about to get new life breathed into them.
“With upcycling, it’s cool to be able to share that with people — that you can make your own clothes and you can make them out of secondhand materials,” Kelsey explained. “It makes me feel really good, especially right now where there’s so much focus on fast fashion and overconsumption.”
Kelsey scours any secondhand markets to craft her viral creations, from eBay and Poshmark to flea markets and thrift stores. Many of her followers send her vintage sheets or sleeping bags they find at their parents’ houses or among their own travels.
“Once you have your eyes open and have the bedsheet radar on, it’s like you start to see them everywhere,” she said.
How to make your own vintage Disney quilted jacket
If you’re inspired by Kelsey’s incredible work, you can try your hand at quilting your own jacket, dress, or skirt by picking up her book, “Sew Nostalgic!” which is available February 24. Some of us pre-ordered the book in August (it’s me), so you’ll want your own copy to get access to Kelsey’s patterns.
“I never really set out to make a book, that was never something I even thought of as a possibility,” Kelsey said. “But like, sure, why not?” She spent a year and a half pattern testing, digitizing the patterns (with help from her mom), then writing it all down for replication.
“Once I finished it, I was like woah... I did that!” she said. “It’s really cool, and probably one of my greatest accomplishments.”
If you’re waiting on your book to arrive, there's one essential you can buy in the meantime: a vintage sheet. Here are a few adorable ones you can shop right now that would work perfectly with Kelsey’s designs:
- Vintage Disney princess sleeping bag on eBay, $45
- Vintage ‘90s Disney The Little Mermaid sheet on eBay, $30
- Vintage Mickey Mouse sheet on eBay, $17
- Vintage ‘90s Lion King sheet on eBay, $20
- Vintage ‘90s Aladdin sheet on eBay, $10
How to order a custom piece from Rope Drop Design
Not into making your own clothing? There’s nothing wrong with that; you can contact Rope Drop Design directly for a custom piece of clothing made from your own vintage find or one that Kelsey sources on her own. Pieces range from $100 to $360 depending on several factors, but you can review her past pieces and how much money they cost on her website.
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