Hello! It’s been a hot summer this year, and I have been living in dresses (which I have to admit is one of my favorite parts of summer!)  I’ve been thinking about adding a new dress to my summer wardrobe and finally got some time to make it happen.  So today we will be making a nice, comfortable striped summer dress perfect for hot and lazy August evenings (my favorite weather, in fact!).  This dress will have a v-neckline in the front and back, an elastic waistband, and very useful front pockets.  We will first make our pattern using an old dress as a guide, and then our striped dress.  Read on for my Striped Summer Dress Tutorial!

The skinny:  

This dress is sort of a revamp of my Comfy, Cozy Sweaterdress that I made a few winters back.  This time, as it’s for hot weather, I’m going to use a light jersey knit striped fabric for my material.  For the top part of the dress, we will be turning the fabric onto its bias, or at a 45 degree angle from the selvage, to make the stripes on the top of the dress a little more interesting.

This dress will consist of ten (10) pieces; two (2) front shirt panels, two (2) back shirt panels, one (1) front skirt panel, one (1) back skirt panel, two (2) front pockets, and two (2) back pockets.  I made my front and back neck lining while sewing, so there is no pattern piece for that (though I’ll explain how to do it later on!).

Materials:

• pattern supplies (pattern paper, pencil, scissors, rulers)
• a dress you can use as a guide

• 2¼ yards of striped knit fabric
• ¼” elastic waistband
• matching thread

Now onto the Striped Summer Dress Tutorial

Instructions:

MAKING THE PATTERN

1.  Try on your dress that you are going to use for a guide and with a pin, mark where you want your waist to be.

2.  First we will make the pattern for the back of the dress.  Fold your dress and pattern paper in half and trace around the dress, making a mark where your waist will be.  I’m going to be a little liberal with my tracing, making my sleeves a little wider so it’s more work appropriate, and giving the dress a v-neckline.

3. Cut out the pattern.

4.  Extend the mark on the waistline across the dress, and cut the dress in half here. These are your back pattern pieces.

5.  Now we’re going to make the front shirt bodice pattern.  Make a second copy of the shirt pattern.  I’m going to make the front v-neckline slightly deeper than the back v-neckline.

6.  Be sure to label your shirt pattern pieces so that you know which is the front and which is the back.

7.  Now make a second copy of the back skirt panel.  This is going to be the front skirt panel of the dress, but first…let’s add pockets to it.

8. Fold the front skirt panel pattern in half and using a bowl or some other rounded object, trace around the bowl (about ¼ of the bowl) to make the scoop for the pocket opening, and cut the scoop out.

9.  Finally we will cut out the pattern for our pocket pieces.  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.  Onto the pattern paper, trace the scoop, trace along the top of the skirt panel 3″ from the scoop edge, and trace along the side of the skirt panel 6″ down from the scoop edge.

Square off the pockets by drawing lines perpendicular to the top and side.  If you’d like, you can curved 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.

10.  Cut out a second one of these, but without the top scoop.  This is your back pocket pattern.

MAKING THE DRESS

I’m going to fold my fabric in half before laying my pattern pieces onto it, so I can cut two of everything at once.

1. Pin/trace your skirt and pocket pattern pieces (not your shirt pieces! We will cut them out afterwards) adding your desired seam allowance onto the wrong side of your fabric, keeping sure to orient the grain of the fabric so that the stripes are horizontal.  Cut these out.

2.  For the top, we want our stripes to be at a 45° angle.  I didn’t have a compass, so I made a right triangle out of pattern paper and simply cut it in half to get my angle.

3.  Keeping your top pattern pieces folded in half, pin/trace them onto the wrong side of the fabric adding your desired seam allowance.   Make sure that the stripes are at a 45° angle to the folded part of the pattern. Cut these out.

4.  Immediately pin the fabric together for your top pattern pieces so they don’t shift (you want to make sure the angled stripes match up).  Sew up the seam along the middle of the top piece first. Do this for the front and back top pieces.  When you open up the top piece, the stripes should have that nice 45° angle.

5.  With right sides together, pin and sew the two top pieces together along the shoulders and the sides.

6.  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.

7.  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.  Fold over the edge of the curves into the pockets ¾” and pin in place.  Using a wide stitch, sew the pockets to the front skirt panel along the curve.  Repeat for good measure.

8.  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.

Sew along the top of the skirt 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.

9.  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.

10.  Now try on your dress, and measure around where you waistband will go.  I like to make my elastic measurement an inch or two smaller than my actual waist. Add ½” or so for your seam allowance and cut that length out on your elastic waistband.

Sew your elastic waistband together at the ends so it forms a circle.

11. Pin this to the inside of your dress around the seam where the skirt meets the shirt. Be sure to match up either end of the elastic with the side seams of the dress.  Using a zigzag stitch, sew the elastic to the dress.  Pull the elastic gently as you sew.

12.  Trace around the front neckline onto fabric.  I made mine ¾” wide, which was a mistake.  You probably want to make yours  1½” to 2″ just to give yourself some room.  I will do that next time! Cut it out.  Do the same for the back neckline.

Pin and sew the ends together, overlapping each end ½” . You should now have a closed neckline band slightly smaller than the neckline on your dress.

13. Pin and sew the neckline band to the neckline onto the right side of the dress using a wide stitch, stretching the neckline band slightly as you sew.  Get as close to the edge as you can and be sure to pivot the needle at the bottom of the v-neck on both sides.

Fold the neckline band into the front of your dress top and sew in place using a wide stitch.

14.  Make a rolled hem (fold in the material twice) around the sleeves and around the bottom of the dress.  Pin and sew in place.

And we are done! Another brand new dress to add to our homemade collection!  All my favorite dresses have been the ones I made myself. 🙂