I have been in love with my homemade French Striped Dress and decided, why not continue on with that theme? Besides, you can’t have too much of a good thing, right? So… I will return to the 1960s here with another boat neckline dress (with pockets, naturally!), but this one will be an homage to the lovely Audrey Hepburn. That woman had class! Read on for my full Audrey Hepburn dress tutorial!
The skinny:
My Audrey Hepburn dress will feature a boat neckline, front pockets, an elastic waistband, will be sleeveless, and will have a pretty strip of contrasting fabric along the bottom of the dress. I’m going to use jersey knit fabric here as I like the stretch of it.
I notice that a lot of sewing tutorials don’t show you how to make your own patterns because if you quickly glance through, it looks complicated. I promise you, it isn’t! And with your own patterns, you can be more precise and have repeatability, and easily make adjustments for next time if you find something not to be exactly what you intended. Don’t be scared. Give it a try!
Here is my super rough sketched “vision”…
Materials:
- dress you will use as a guide
- pattern paper
- scissors/tape/pencil
- 1½ yards of knit fabric
- ¼ yards of contrasting knit fabric
- ¼” elastic waistband
- matching thread
The Audrey Hepburn Dress Tutorial
Instructions:
MAKING THE PATTERN
1. Fold your pattern paper in half length wise. Place your dress that you are using as a guide and trace around it making any necessary adjustments. I actually traced and modified the pattern I had made for my French Striped Dress Tutorial; another reason it’s good to make patterns! I gave my pattern a boat neckline, made the dress sleeveless, and made the the skirt part flare out in an A-shape. Your pattern should look like this below when it’s done.
Cut across your desired waistline and across the bottom of the dress at the width that you want your color block fabric to be. My color block will be about 5″ wide when its all said and done.
Making the dress pattern. I copied over and modified the pattern I had made for my French Striped Dress Tutorial.
2. Because this dress will feature a boat neckline, the front and back bodice pieces will be exactly the same shape, so you only need one copy of that pattern. But since we will have front pockets, we will need to make a second copy of the skirt pattern.
We’re going to make front pockets using the method I outlined in my Striped Summer Dress tutorial. Fold one of the two skirt patterns in half and using a bowl or some other rounded object (French curve, anyone?), make a curved scoop for the pockets opening and cut them out.
Make a copy of the skirt pattern. Fold one of them in half and cut out scoops for the pockets.
3. Now for the pocket patterns. Using the front skirt panel as a guide, keep it folded in half and place it onto pattern paper. We’re going to trace along the top right corner.
On the pattern paper, trace around the pocket opening (the scoop), trace along the top of the skirt panel 2¼″ left of the pocket scoop, and trace along the side of the skirt panel 6″ down from the bottom of the scoop.Square off the pockets by drawing lines perpendicular to the top and side. Then curve the inside corner of the pocket pattern here to make it more user friendly (I don’t want to lose change in the corner). This is your front pocket pattern. Cut it out. Cut out a second one of these, but without the top scoop. This is your back pocket pattern.
1. Copy around the pocket scoops on the skirt pattern 2. Use a straight edge to complete the pocket pattern 3. Round out the bottom of the pocket 4. Make a copy of the pocket pattern, this time without the scoop removed
4. Lastly, the neckline lining pattern. This will help to stabilize the neckline. Trace around the neckline of your dress pattern. Using a ruler, make the necklining pattern piece 1½” wide and cut it out.When this neckline lining is sewn together, you want it to be about 1″ inch or so shorter than your actual neckline, depending on the stretch of your material (more stretchy=1-2″ shorter; less stretchy=0-1″ shorter). To do this, you must cut a bit off each end of the neck lining patterns. I will cut ½” off each end to err on the side of caution, as I can always cut more off later.
1. Trace around the neckline 2. Make this 1½” wide 3. Fold it in half and cut ½” off of the ends
MAKING THE DRESS
Finally, the fun part! The sewing.
1. I’m going to fold my fabric in half so that I can cut out two of everything at once. Pin/trace your bodice, skirt, neckline lining, and pocket pattern pieces onto the wrong side of your fabric so that the stretch goes from side to side, and cut them out adding your desired seam allowance. Remember to cut out the color block pieces onto contrasting fabric.
2. With right sides together, pin and sew across the top of each shoulder. Cut off any excess fabric.
3. Next, the neckline. Right sides together, pin and sew the ends of your neckline linings together so it forms an oval, of sorts. Cut off any excess.
Now, right sides together, pin the neckline lining to the dress. To make sure it is put on evenly, first pin each seam of the neckline lining to the to top each shoulder, then pin the middle of the front of the lining to the middle of the front neckline, and then the middle of the back of the lining to the middle of the back of the neckline. Add more pins as you want but you will have to stretch the neckline lining as you pin to make sure it’s pinned evenly. Sew these together, stretching the neck lining as you sew.
Tuck the neck lining fabric into the inside of the dress so you see right side of the seam. Pin the lining in place on the wrong side of the dress and again sew around the neckline, but this time use a wide straight stitch.
4. Right sides together, pin and sew the two bodice pieces together along the sides.
5. Next we will move on to the pockets. Right sides together, pin the front and back pockets together. Sew along the bottom of the pockets and on the side that will be towards the center of the dress. Now you should have your pockets attached at two sides.
Next, place the pockets behind the front skirt panel and line up the curve of each pocket with the curve of the front skirt panel. Pin and sew them together along the curve of the pocket. Now, fold over the edge of the curves into the pockets ¾” and pin in place. Sew this again using a wide stitch.
6. Now, right sides together, pin and sew the back skirt panel to the front skirt panel along each side. Make sure the pockets are laying flat, and that the sides of the pockets line up with the sides of the dress.
Now, sew along the top of the skirt in the two spots to attach the top of the pockets to the front of the skirt. Make sure you are sewing along the front of the skirt only. You don’t want to accidentally sew the waist shut.
7. Right sides together, pin and sew the top of the skirt to the bottom of your shirt, making sure that the seams match up on the sides. You’re going to have to tuck your skirt into your shirt to do this.
8. At this point, I’m going to hem the sleeves. Before I need to change my thread color.
9. And now to sew the elastic on…
Now try on your dress, and measure around where you waistband will go. I like to make my elastic measurement two inches or so smaller than my actual waist. Cut that length out on your elastic waistband. Sew your elastic waistband together at the ends so it forms a circle.
Pin this to the inside of your dress around the seam where the skirt meets the shirt. Since the elastic is shorter than the waist of the dress, I pinned it in four places; at either side, the middle of the back, and the middle of the front. Using a zigzag stitch, sew the elastic to the dress. Pull the elastic gently as you sew.
11. Take your contrasting fabric and, right sides together, pin and sew it up the sides. Now, right sides together, pin and sew the contrasting fabric to the bottom of the dress.
12. Sew the hemline along the bottom of your skirt. I’m going to use a blind hem stitch.
And voila! We are done. I hope you enjoyed my Audrey Hepburn Dress tutorial. Stay classy! ♥