Simple Dress: How To

About

You Will Need (5 things)

Steps (28 steps, 120 minutes)

1. 1

   First cut out your pattern pieces. There should be one front skirt piece (cut on the fold), two back skirt pieces, two sleeve pieces, one front facing (cut on the fold), two back facing pieces (the facings also need to be cut out of fusible interfacing), one front bodice (cut on the fold) and two back bodice pieces.

2. 2

   Cut the notches in each piece. The bodice has the most notches, these help you line the fabric up and makes it neater :)
   (I don't usually cut the whole triangle out, I just do a small snip.)

3. 3

   Stay-stitch all of your bodice and sleeve pieces. The bodice pieces need to be stitched from the shoulder seam down to the armpit seam.

4. 4

   Now mark your darts. Mark a small snip on the end of each line that you want to make the dart. You'll fold these over to match up and sew along it in a minute.

5. 5

   Pierce a hole in the dot which you want. So for size 12, pierce the hole that says '12'. Mark a dot in it with tailor's chalk pencil.

6. 6

   Fold the fabric over so that the two small snips you made earlier match up. Sew along in a straight line until you reach the dot you made. Don't backstitch it (this makes a bubble-y dart, which isn't nice). Instead, tie a knot at the end to secure the threads.

7. 7

   Repeat the darts for all of the pieces that require them. The back bodice only has one, but the front bodice has four (two bust darts and two the same as the back bodice).

8. 8

   Stitch the bodice pieces together at the shoulder seams and the side seams. Don't try and match the arm holes because they won't match.

9. 9

   This will make the outer shell of the bodice!

10. 10

    Now stitch your skirt together. Stitch the centre back pieces to the front skirt, to create a really big skirt like this:

11. 11

    Now adjust the tension of your machine, to make the stitches loose. Make the stich length really big and the tension as low as you can make it before it jams.

12. 12

    Stitch two lines along the top of the skirt piece that you just made, one at 0.5cm away from the raw edge and the other one at 1cm.

13. 13

    Measure the bottom of your bodice. Mine measured 70cm, so now you need to gather up the skirt piece so that it measures the same amount.

14. 14

    Pull the 1cm thread (holding onto the bobbin thread) so that it gathers. Keep doing it until you reach your desired width of skirt. There are two stitch lines just in case you break one (which I did!)

15. 15

    Once you've got it to the right width, I usually sew over the gathers using a close-ish zig-zag stitch to keep it in place.

16. 16

    Now pin the skirt piece right side to the right side of the bodice. Sew along the line with 1.5cm seam allowance.

17. 17

    Here's your skirt so far! :)

18. 18

    Now to sew the zip in. Place the right side of the zip against the right side of the back of the dress. Sew all the way to the bottom (and don't turn the top of the zip over. You'll need the extra bit at the top for seam allowance later.)

19. 19

    Do the same for the other side, press it and then topstitch. Pin the back of the skirt right sides together and sew down the seam right to the bottom of the skirt.

20. 20

    Almost done! Here's the skirt from the back

21. 21

    Prepare the facing. Iron the interfacing onto the facing pieces like this: make sure they interfacing is properly on, not peeling off

22. 22

    Sew all the facing pieces together like this:

23. 23

    Finish the bottom and side edges off nicely with a zig-zag stich or overlocker if you're lucky enough to have one :P

24. 24

    Pin the facing right side to the right side of the neckline of the dress. Sew all the way around the neckline with a 1.5cm seam allowance.

25. 25

    Make notches in the neckline (make sure you don't cut the main dress!)
    This just makes the neckline sit flatter and smoother, instead of being lumpy.

26. 26

    Press the facing in to the inside of the dress like so, and topstitch it.

27. 27

    Now for the sleeves....
    this is kinda hard so I'm sorry if I don't explain it correctly...
    Hem the bottom of your sleeve pieces.
    Mark the centre of both of your sleeve pieces. Match this up to the seam on each of your shoulders.
    Sew the sleeve right sides to the right side of the arm hole, making it fit as you go along. Then turn the sleeve back on itself and it should be all done!

    I zig-zagged the inside of it to make it neater afterwards.
    Repeat for each other the sleeves.

28. 28

    Now hem your skirt (I did a big hem because it looked nicer). You're done!
    I hope this tutorial wasn't too hard to understand, I'm not very good at explaining stuff. if you have any questions please comment below or message me
    :) xx