Jessica is one of our Make it Monday contributors and has her own blog www.acoupleofcraftaddicts.com where she blogs about her adventures in sewing! She recently posted a simple tutorial on how to make a girls dress and we knew you’d love it! Take it away Jess!
I have been having so much fun playing around with jersey fabrics. Developing my own patterns and trying new techniques, it has been a great learning experience. Knit is actually really easy to sew with, I am amazed that I was so intimidated by new fabrics and textiles. Now I am totally in love with knits and can’t wait to get started on my next project.
This is a simple dress. One great thing about knits is the stretch which means you don’t need any buttons or zippers for neck closures.
1 Begin with a basic bodice and sleeve. I cut the arm width of the sleeve wide in order to add the elastic and create the scrunched, puff sleeve. Then cut your skirt pieces, two pieces double your bodice width and about 15″ long. You also need a few pieces of bias tape (I made mine by hand) for around the neck and the center notch. *To learn how to create the bodice and sleeves check out THIS post.
2. Sew your bodice pieces together at 1 shoulder. Open it up and add your center notch to the front by sewing the bias tape RST and at the end. Flip right side out. Stitch down to the center of the bodice front.
3. Sew your bias tape around the neck and finish by sewing the other shoulder together.
4. Sew a gather stitch along the top of the sleeve and turn the ends of each sleeve up 1/2″. This is your casing for the elastic. Measure the arm width for the elastic length. Thread your elastic through the casing and sew in place on each end. Add your sleeves to the bodice and sew up the sides of the bodice through the ends of each sleeve.
5. Sew your skirt pieces together along the sides. Now you have a large tube. Sew a gather stitch around the top of the tube and gather until the skirt tube is the same size as the bodice. With the right side of the bodice against the wrong side of the skirt top stitch the skirt to the bodice along the gathered stitch. (You will have a raw edge along the top of the skirt). Turn the hem of the skirt under 1/4″, press, and turn another 1/4″, and press. Top stitch the hem in place (you can use a double needle for a professional look.)
*I hand stitched the pink bows to the front of the dress. I used the same bias tape technique as the center notch but pinched the center together and hand stitched it in place.
