To sew a little girls dress from scratch we will begin with a already made tank top. This will be our pattern for the dress. We are going to make it longer and wider at the bottom and use the shape of the neck and sleeveless openings as patterns for our dress.
Instructions:
- First, cut out the front of the dress with the scooped neck like the tank top.
- Now cut out the back of the dress with the back neck fitting at the neckline.
- Be sure and leave a ⅝’ seam allowance and ½” more for finishing the edge of the neck and sleeves.
- Next with right sides of the fabric together, sew the neck piece together on each side of the neck opening.
- Now seam the sides of the dress from under the sleeveless sleeve opening to the bottom of the dress on both sides.
- Next turn the dress right side out.
Finishing The Edges:
- Around the neck press the fabric ½” to the inside of the neck and iron it down.
- Stitch a ¼” line along the ½” folded down fabric. Be sure not to stretch the neck as you sew because this is on the bias and will easily stretch.
- Your stitches will show on the right side so make them neat.
- Do the same thing to the sleeveless sleeve openings.
- Now fold the material one more time to the inside of the neck opening. Making it so that the raw edge on the inside of the fabric no longer shows.
- Iron the fabric flat and sew ¼” again around the neck opening. Again this top stitch will show so make it neat.
- Fold in and Iron the sleeveless sleeve openings just like you did the neck opening.
- This too will be a top stitch and show so please make it neat.
Finishing Touches:
- Try the dress on to see if the length is where you would like it.
- You can finish the hem in one of two ways.
- If it is excessively long then fold the hem to the inside up ½” and iron.
- Sew ¼” around the hem.
- Now take a seam gauge and while trying the dress on, measure how short you would like the hem to be.
- If it is more than an inch, fold the dress up with the fold to the inside of the dress and iron.
- Pin the dress around the hem.
- Take a needle, needle threader, complimentary thread and thread your needle with a double thread length.
- Tie a knot in the thread at the end.
- Begin near the side seam and take a small stitch through the folded hem and the outside fabric,
- Move over a half inch to your right and take another small stitch through both the hem fabric and the outside fabric.
- You are trying to just make a tiny stitch showing on the outside. (barely noticeable.)
- Continue this hand stitch around the entire hem. (Absolutely, be sure and every 3rd stitch you take an extra stitch through the hem material and when you pull the thread tight, let the string form a figure eight. Place your needle through the figure eight and pull the threads tight to the hem fabric. (This knot will keep your hem from unraveling if a thread is broken.)
- Now if your hem length is less than an inch, finish the bottom hem the same way you finished the neck and sleeve openings with a ¼” top stitch.
The little girls dress is finished and ready to wear. This pattern can be used on any size dress, just begin with the size tank top you want the dress to fit and be sure to make the skirt length long enough for who you are making it for. This makes a nice sundress for any age.
Please feel free to ask questions or comment in the comment section. I will answer asap.
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