Free Sewing Pattern and Tutorial: Pumpkin Pie Dress

Photo by Ami Mathur Photography

This is a tutorial I posted for Clothworks blog. Reposting it here in case you missed it first time around.
Ever since I have drafted a peasant dress pattern, I have been playing around with different design elements to make most of it. Here is a cute dress made with mixing a bunch of Clothworks collections ( Suzette, Picnic Pals, Safari Sweet) and adding in some fun details like ruffles, belt, easy appliques etc.

Supplies:
Coordinating fabrics in different prints
I chose the following fabrics:
Suzette for bodice and ruffle at the hem - half yard
Picnic Pals for Sleeves and belt fabric - half yard
Safari Sweet for skirt  - half yard
Orange felt fabric
Approximate time: 2 hours
Skill Level: Beginner
Pattern:
Print out the 3 page pdf pattern for Pumpkin Pie Dress on 8.5 X 11 inch paper with margins set to zero.

Here is how your patterns will look when you assemble them

Sewing Margin: 3/8 inch until otherwise specified

Construction:

Sewing the bodice

This dress builds up on the peasant dress pattern we published earlier. So, I'm skipping over the details of how to assemble the bodice and finish the neckline and sleeves. Its exactly same as Peasant Dress here except that here I didn't shir the sleeves. You could shir or leave the sleeves as is depending upon your preference.

Cut out the pattern pieces. Sew the sleeves and bodice together like the peasant dress here.

Sewing the skirt
Cut a piece of fabric 16 inches ( length) X 40 inches( width). Sew the 16 inches sides together ( right sides together).

Sew two seams along one of the raw 40 inches edge. Pull the bobbin thread to gather the fabric. Gather until it becomes equal to the bodice. Sew it to the bodice ( Right Sides Together)

Attaching the ruffle at the hem

Cut two strips 3 inches long and 40 inches wide. Sew the shorter ends together to join them and form a big circle.

Fold both raw edges quarter inch onto the wrong side twice.

Set your machine tension on high and stitch length on max and set the speed on max. Sew a seam about half inch below the edge. This will ruffle the fabric automatically. Once you are done you could even out the ruffles by hand and adjust them to fit the hem of the dress.

Fold the dress hem quarter inch onto itself twice. Sew the ruffle you just made about an inch above the hem.

Making belt:

Cut two strips of 40 inches width. One 2.5 inches long and another 4 inches wide.

 Sew the 40 inches sides to each other on both raw edges.

Center the smaller strip on the bigger strip. Now sew a seam at one of the shorter ends. Snip corners. Turn out.
 Here is my detailed tutorial on sewing belts.

Here is how the belt will look after turning out.

Iron. Tuck the raw ends inside. Iron again. Sew a seam to close the end.

Here is the finished belt.

Center the belt over the seam joining bodice and skirt. Sew two seams overlapping with the seam joining both belt fabrics. This seams will be sewn only in the front.

Cut out few pumpkins in different sizes from felt pieces. Use a black embroidery thread to sew running stitches on the pumpkins for decoration.

You can now attach pumpkins by hand-sewing them to the dress or by machine sewing. By using felt we skip over the steps using interfacing or finishing the raw edges. I have already washed the dress a couple of times and the appliques are holding up just fine.

Photo by Ami Mathur Photography

Just add a baby!