T-shirt dresses are one of my favorite things because they are extremely comfortable and quick to get dressed in.  Today, we’re going to make a t-shirt dress, but jazz it up a bit with some lace trimming.  This will keep the comfort factor, but allow me to wear it dressed up to fancier events.  This dress will have short sleeves, a scooped neckline, and inseam pockets.  Read along for my DIY fancy t-shirt dress tutorial …

The skinny:

This dress is very simple to make.  No zippers, no buttons.  Adding the lace trim was super easy and really does look nice.  Just find a nice sturdy jersey knit fabric.

Materials:

• pattern supplies (pattern paper, pencil, scissors, rulers)
• a t-shirt that fits you well, that you can use as a guide

• 1½ yards of knit fabric (~60″ wide)
• 3 yards of lace trim
• ¼ fusible knit interfacing (optional – for stabilizing pockets)
• matching thread

Now onto my Fancy T-Shirt Dress Tutorial

Instructions:

MAKING THE PATTERN

1.  First we will make the pattern back of the dress.  Measure from the top of your shoulders down to how long you want your dress to be.  Write this down (my measurement is 38″). Fold your pattern paper in half.  Fold your shirt in half and lay it onto the pattern paper so that the fold of the shirt matches up with the fold of the paper.  Tuck the arms under and trace around the shirt.  Using a ruler, extend the side of the shirt down to your desired dress length (this is the measurement we just took).I usually add the desired seam when I am tracing the pattern onto the fabric.  This time I am going to add it to the pattern itself.  So, add your desired seam width/length on your pattern (I’m not going to add a seam allowance along the neckline, as I want my neckline a bit lower).  Cut this out.

2. To make the pattern for the front of the dress, make a second copy of the back dress pattern and adjust the neckline to your liking.

3.  Now we will make the sleeve pattern.  Measure from the top of your shoulders down to how long you want your sleeves to be.  Write this down (my measurement is 10″).  Take a piece of pattern paper, fold it in half, and tuck it under either sleeve opening of the front or back dress pattern so the fold matches up with the top of the shoulder.  The fold will be the top of your sleeve.  Trace around the sleeve opening.  From the top of where you traced the sleeve opening, measure your desired sleeve length down along the fold and add your desired seam allowance.

Using your measuring tape, now find out the circumference of the width of your arm where you desired sleeve length ends.  You can make this is as tight or as loose you want (I’m going to make mine 11″).  Take this measurement and divide it in half to get the length you draw down at the edge of your sleeve (so, 5½” for me) and add your desired seam allowance.  Draw a straight line from the edge of your sleeve just up to the bottom armpit area of the sleeve.  Draw a little curve near the armpit connecting up to the straight line you just drew.  This will be the bottom of your sleeve.  Cut this out.

4.  We’re going to make inseam pockets like we did in my Inseam Pockets Tutorial.  To make the pattern for your pocket, place your hand along the edge of a piece of pattern paper at a slight angle.  Trace around your hand and make the pocket as roomy as you want.  Cut this out.

5. Now we will make the neck lining patterns.  Trace around the necklines on your front and back dress patterns.  Using a ruler, make these neck lining pattern pieces 1½” wide and cut them 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 ¼” off each end to err on the side of caution, as I can always cut more off later.

Now for the sewing!

MAKING THE DRESS

1.  Pin/trace your pattern pieces onto the wrong side of your fabric.  Make sure to orient the grain of the fabric so the stretch goes from side to side for your dress pieces and along the width of the sleeves (see diagram above).  I traced my pattern pieces onto the fabric using white pastels.  Cut out your pattern pieces.

2.  Take your dress pieces, right side together, pin then sew across the top of each shoulder.  Trim off any excess fabric.

3.  Next we will attach the sleeves.  Right sides together, match the middle of the shoulder part of the sleeve to the shoulder seam on the dress, pin the sleeve in place, making your way down to the armpits.  Sew this together.  Repeat with the other sleeve. Trim off any excess fabric.

4.  The next step is to add the pockets.  We’re going to add the interfacing to the pockets using the steps found in my inseam pockets tutorial.

After adding your interfacing to the pockets, try on your dress to determine where the top of the pocket will begin.  Mark this with a pin.  Right sides together, pin and sew your pocket piece along the side of the dress where you marked with a pin.  Make sure that the pocket is pointing downwards.  Do this for all (4) pockets, being careful to make sure that they will match up.  I will sew mine with a ⅜” seam allowance, slightly less than the rest of the dress which I will sew with a ½” seam allowance.

5.  Right sides together, Starting with the end of your sleeve, pin and sew along the bottom of the sleeve, to the armpit, along the side of the dress, around the pockets, and down to the bottom of the dress.  Do this for the other side and cut off any excess fabric.

6.  Next, the neckline.  Right sides together, pin and sew the ends of your neckline linings together so it forms a circle, of sorts. 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).  This lining must be stretched as you sew it onto your dress.  The reason for this is that it will help your neckline keep its shape and not sag.

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 (I will add 8 more for 12 pins total), but you may have to stretch the neckline lining  as you pin to make sure it fits.  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.

7.  Almost there! Hem your sleeves to your desired length.   Take your lace trim and pin and sew it onto the right side of your sleeves.  I added mine with two zigzag stitches.

8.  Finally, hem the length of your dress to your desired length.  Add your lace trim here as well.

Ta da! Brand new dress. 🙂  I hope you enjoyed my Fancy T-Shirt Dress Tutorial!