A-Line Dress Free Pattern

 Here is a mini tutorial to sew an easy and comfy A-line Dress. It will be a wardrobe staple in the warmer weather. My monkey likes hers very much and would wear it every day if I let her.

Level: Confident Beginner
Time: 2 Hours
Pattern:

Download the A-line Knit Dress Pattern in 3 years size here. Print on 8x11.5 inch paper.

Set the margins to 0. Print and join with tape at the overlap area on page 1.
Print 2 copies of each page and tape page 1 and 2 together on both of them. Cut the upper neckline on the first one. This will become the back of the dress. Cut the lower neckline on the second set. This will become the front of the dress.

Seam Allowance: 3/8 inch unless otherwise specified

Material: One XL or bigger sized Tshirt.( both Men's /Women's would work)

Construction:

Fold the Tshirt/Fabric in half and cut both front and back pieces of the dress using the upper neckline. Now remove one of the pieces and cut the front neckline using the lower neckline on the pattern. While cutting take care to A) cut such that the bottom of dress falls on the hemline of the tank top or Tshirt you are using. B) Keep both the layers aligned if they have stripes or any other symmetrical print.

Sew along the shoulders and the sides ( right sides together)

Bind the neck and armholes using Tshirt neck binding tutorial.

There you have it! The simple knit dress your daughter would want to live in...this summer.

Dainty Floral Dress Pattern and Tutorial

I have always had this idea of a dainty little dress with very girly design elements like gathered shoulder straps ( sleeves), a cinched belt in the front and layered skirt. Often when I think of design, I have a clear picture of how it will all go together, but for this dress I didn't have everything chalked out. I just thought this beautiful floral print ( Suzette by Sue Zipkin for Clothworks) was perfect for putting my ideas to reality and everything just fell into place. I'm so pleased with how it all came together. My little miss wore it the other day and it just looked so good on her...I hope you would like it too and make it for your little bella.

Supplies:

3 half yard coordinating prints from Suzette

I used wandering Vines in Pink, Light Aqua Lotus Flowers and Butterflies, Cream Mosaic Tiles

1 quarter yd print from Suzette
I used wandering vines in Red

Elastic thread - white
Coordinating Ribbon scrap - 5 inches
Coordinating Ric-rac - 1.25 yards


Pattern:
Download the pdf for bodice front here ( size 2T -3T)

Construction:

Using the bodice pattern, cut two pieces ( both on fold) one from the main fabric, one from lining. I used the same fabric for both, but you could use different fabrics for the outer layer and lining.

For the back of bodice cut a rectangle 8 inches X 22 inches. Fold it in half along the 8 inches and shir the doubled piece by sewing along the 22 inches edge. Starting at quarter inch below the fold. Sew 6 to 7 rows. Since you're shirring a double layered fabric, its possible that it doesn't ruffles much after shirring. Don't worry about that, Set your iron on high setting and turn steam function on. Iron on the shirred piece for a minute or so. You should see the piece shrink considerably by this.


Here's a great tutorial on shirring.

For the belt in front, cut a piece 4 inch X 11 inches. Fold in half along the 4 inch side and iron.

For the sleeves, cut two pieces, 10 inches X 5 inches.

Fold quarter inch along the 10 inch sides and sew a seam along both sides.

Fold quarter inch again along the 10 inch sides and sew a seam.

Set the stitch length to the longest and sew a seam along one 5 inch side on both the sleeve pieces. Pull on the bobbin thread to gather the pieces. Once they are gathered to two inches each. Sew them to the curved part of the bodice piece ( right sides together). Place them 3 inches apart at the center.

Also place the belt piece at the straight edge of the bodice. Sew along the raw edges at the bottom. Insert a scrap of ribbon at the center. The right side of the ribbon should be together with the right side of bodice fabric.

Place the shirred back bodice piece over the bodice front and sleeves. Back bodice right side should be together with front bodice right side. Align the sides.

Now cover the whole thing with the inner piece of the bodice, wrong side up.

Sew a seam along the three sides ( except bottom edge) of the bodice. Make sure you're sewing through all the layers.

Snip the corners and cut out some notches along the curve ( only up to the seam, take care of not cutting into the seam).

Turn out. Poke the corners out with a sharp object like a pencil. Iron the bodice. Cinch the belt in front with the ribbon scrap you had sewn in the center. Sew the other end of ribbon down by hand sewing or machine sewing.

The bodice is ready. Lets work on the skirt next.

For the layered skirt I took two fabrics

Inner Layer 17 inch X 45 inch rectangle
Outer Layer 13 inch X 45 inch rectangle

Now these measurements may not work for all because my daughter is  really skinny and tall and I also wanted the skirt to hit below knees because she grows only vertically. So the easiest way to determine the length of skirts would be to measure the bodice against a dress which fits well. Whatever remains after bodice is length you need + 1.5 inch( for hemming and sewing margins).
Once you determine the length of inner layer, the outer layer would be 2 - 3 inches shorter than that. Mine is 4 inch shorter but that's because I have folded the inner layer about 1.5 inches, whereas outer layer has been folded less than one inch.
The width, on the other hand would work for a lot of ages ( at least 2 - 5) with the only difference being in the fullness of skirt. If you're making it for an average built 6 years or older girl then you may need to increase the width.

Fold the skirt fabrics in half along the width ( right sides together) and sew along the raw short edges ( 17 inch and 13 inch respectively) This will turn the skirt fabrics into cylinders.

Turn right side out and slip the smaller cylinder onto the bigger one. Align the raw edges at one end.

Sew two parallel seams along the aligned raw edge and pull on the bobbin thread to gather the skirts. Adjust the gathers by hand. Here, you have to make sure that the gathers are more concentrated in the front of the skirt ( the part opposite to the seams). We have to do it because the shirred part in the back will be automatically gathering the skirt fabric. I kept the front heavily gathered while the back almost flat. Adjust the gathers until the width of the skirt becomes roughly equal to the width of the bodice.

Now slip the bodice over the skirt ( right sides together). Line up the raw edges of all the layers. Make sure the skirts seam is at the center of back bodice piece. Sew along the raw edge. Here shirred piece of bodice may need to be stretched as you need to sew along the flat fabric below the shirred part. That is the reason why we didn't gather the skirt much in the back.

Here's how it will look after you turn it out. The skirt was almost flat in the back before I joined it to the bodice. Now it seems fairly gathered. That's because shirring is causing it to gather.

To finish the hem of inner skirt. Fold it twice onto itself ( quarter inch first and one and half inch next time). Sew along the fold.

To finish the outer layer hemline with a Ric-rac trim, first fold the hem quarter inch on the inside. Iron it to make a crisp edge.

Now sew Ric-rac along the right side with the seam centered in the middle of Ric-rac.

Now fold it on the inside and as close to the edge as possible. This will have half of the Ric-rac scallops peeking from the wrong side of the fabric.

To finish the other end of the sleeves ( shoulder straps). Gather their raw ends by sewing a seam and pulling on the bobbin thread.

Place them inside the back bodice, about 1-2 inches apart in the center. At this point it will be helpful to try the dress on the child and estimate where you need to sew the ends of straps. I sewed them down about 2 inches below the upper edge of bodice. Sew 2-3 seams for strength as these will be carrying some weight when the dress is worn. Also don't forget to back-stitch these seams.

Et Voila! Floral dress.

Ten new dress sewing patterns

Photo credit: iCandy Handmade for Kojo Designs
I have realized that all of us really really need some new sewing dress patterns to sew for our chikadees. So I took a stock of my overflowing bookmarks and pins and rounded up a new batch of dress sewing patterns and tutorials. Checkout my hubpage for some fun, cute and gorgeous dresses to sew for little girls.

Nautical dress sewing pattern and tutorial: Sew Easy part 14

You can read the story behind this series and the first part here. Click here to read the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth,  eleventh and twelfth  and thirteenth edition of this series.

I'm back with a new edition of Sew Easy after a looooooooong time. I have written many tutorials in the meantime, but nothing really fit the criteria for Sew Easy. So rather than compromising the basic premise of the series, I just resisted posting. I had the idea of this dress swarming in my mind for a while, finally I buckled down and made it. I liked the way it looks on my toddler.

Here's how you could make one:



Supplies:

Knit fabric ( preferably with horizontal stripes):1yd (I used a tank top to make this dress)
Grosgrain Ribbon: 1 inch wide or even wider
Coordinating grosgrain ribbon: 3/8 inch wide
Coordinating ribbing fabric for neck and armholes ( I actually didn't use ribbing, I just used a regular interlock fabric)

Measurements:

Measure the widest part of child's body: Lets call it W1

W = (W1+ 2 inches)/2

Measure how long you want the dress to be starting from highest point of the shoulder. Lets call it L

Measure the length between the tip of the shoulder to the bottom of the armhole. Lets call it A1
A= A1+1 inch

Construction:

1.Cut two layers of fabric on the fold with length L and width W. I have cut it slightly A line shape. You could cut it either A line or straight. I don't think it matters much at the end. If you're using a Tshirt or Tank top to make this try to measure L upwards from hemline. That way you can use the existing hemline to become dress hemline.

2. Cut out the neckline. I pretty much freehanded it. I wanted a boat neck shape for this dress so you can see it is cut very shallow and wide.

3. Sew the shoulder seams ( Right sides together). Also leave a gap for armholes and sew the sides. I left a gap of 4 inches for armholes.

4. Take the wider grosgrain ribbon and cut it into a V on one end. Fold it towards the wrong side and sew a seam.

5. Start an inch away from front center and sew as close to the ribbon's top edge as possible. Sew the ribbon along the waist of dress all the way up to 2 inch from front center. Cut the remaining ribbon at this point.

6. Cut a V at the other end and fold it onto itself. Sew the remaining 1 inch of this seam, such that you have a space of two inches empty at the front center of the waist. Sew another seam along the bottom of the grosgrain ribbon. This is where the horizontal stripes will come in handy. If you use them as your guiding lines you can be sure that the ribbon is sewn straight.

7. Use a safety pin to thread the narrower ribbon through this 'casing' we made out of wider grosgrain.

8. Pull the ribbon out on the other side and use a bow to tie the belt.

9. For the neck binding, cut a piece from the contrasting knit, about two-third of the neckline length wide and 4 inches long. Sew together the narrower sides ( right sides together)

10. Fold it into half of its width.

11. Stretch and sew along the neck line ( Right sides together). Use pins while sewing to make sure it is stretched evenly.

12. Repeat steps 9 to 11 for the armholes as well. Yep! I realized I didn't care that much for the turquoise ribbon, so I swapped it for the pink zebra print grosgrain. If you didn't use an already hemmed garment, finish the hemline with your preferred method, if you're working with knits, you could also leave it raw, since knits won't fray. However a finished hemline gives more definition to the garment so I would recommend it.

So how's that for a sew easy?