I really wanted to make a dress from some fabric I had laying around. I have a little collection now of fabrics that I found in the thrift shop. And one of them stood out for me to make a dress out of. I was looking online for a nice pattern and found a very simple one from Jenna Phipps. So, I just followed that and came out with a nice dress!

Here is the link to her video: https://youtu.be/VuAFgsgRH10

But I will also explain here how I made it.

I started out with measuring the bust and I did that over my clothes so the dress would fit loosely. That came out to 88 cm. I also measured my ideal length for the top part which was about 16 cm. This was it would sit just right beneath my boobs. So, these measurements became my pattern. I also put 1cm seam allowance around that, except at one side which is the fold, where the fabric would lay folded under so it’s one long rectangle.

I cut this out 4 times, 2 front and back and 2 for the inside. This way it would look nicely finished but also would give you a solid coverage. I sewed 2 together on one side so instead of 4 pieces we now have 2 really long ones. Make sure both patterns are facing inwards.

For the straps I cut it about 10cm wide and 50cm long, because I wanted really long straps. I sewed it while it was inside out and then later flipped it.

This is a bit difficult to explain, but we are going to secure the top part now. Lay the first top part pattern up, then place the straps and lay the other top part pattern down. Here you need to decide how far you want the straps to lay from each other. I thought 9cm from the sides and around 20 cm in between would be the best and it worked out well!

Also place the straps on the other side, not displayed on this picture.

Now sew across the upper line.

Now that we have the top in some way, it’s time to make the skirt part. And because we are going to gather the skirt it need to be wide. So, for the width you need 2 times your bust size, mine was 88cm and I’m going to use about 180cm. For the length you want to measure from where your top is supposed to end till where you want it to stop. So for the babydoll effect I wanted it to be a bit shorter but you can also get a really nice long dress with this in mind.

Also my fabric wasn’t long enough so I had to sew two pieces together. If yours is that’s even easier! So, now I’m going to first sew the hem of the dress, just because I don’t really like that part and I want to get that done.

When that is done, I thought there would be the fun part. But because my fabric is pretty thick, it was harder than I thought. You need to gather your skirt fabric to make it the same width as your top fabric. For this you need to just do a straight stitch (no backstitch) and have it on the largest width. When you go fully across the whole width you need to pull the top thread and start to gather it.

When you have the skirt the same width as the top it’s time to sew the top and the skirt together. Do this by laying the top open with the pattern laying facing up. And then lay the skirt op top of that with the pattern facing down. Sew across the gathered line of the skirt. It’s kind of hard to explain it this way, so if you don’t understand is (which can be a very high chance) just watch the video that I put in the intro, she explains it very well.

Now you need to fold the edge inwards. This way you will not see any raw edges and it will look very clean!

When that is done you need to do only one thing and that is sew the side!

And now you will have a dress! I’m so happy with the result because this is my first dress and it wasn’t even that hard to make. I will probably make more dresses with this pattern in the future because I also really love the fit.