Sewing An Off-The-Shoulder Dress For A Girl

I had a whole lot of fun with today's dress. I had less than a half meter of fabric left and it had a bit of an old-fashioned print on it. I decided to turn this into a cute old-fashioned dress for my niece. I would drop the shoulders a little to make it look a little more playful. I also dropped the waistline, to take it straight back to the 50's. Makeshift sleeves and bias binding on the neckline, are all tricks that are discussed in the blog.

This is what little fabric I had left in this particular design.

I used one of my niece's existing dresses to cut the bodice from and then I dropped the waistline.

I used the back bodice to cut the front bodice and then I dropped the neckline.

I used the remainder of the fabric to cut the skirt, allowing the stripes to run horizontally, rather than vertical, as in the bodice.

I cut the tiny strip of fabric, that was left over from cutting the bodice, in half. I will fashion sleeves out of these a little later on.

I overlocked all of the edges.

I then fashioned these mock sleeves out of those two strips of fabric I talked about earlier.

Laying the front bodice on the back bodice with right sides facing, I pin and sew ONE of the side seams.

Laying the skirt panels on top of each other with right sides facing, I sewed ONE of the side seams.

Iron these two sewn seams OPEN.

Pin the bottom of the bodice to the waist of the skirt.

Sew the bodice to the skirt.

Iron the seam and find a zipper that will fit under the arm.

Pin the zipper to the underarm seam.

Sew as close as possible to the zipper, down one side and up the other.

Unpick the seam on top of the zipper. You have now inserted a beautifully hidden zipper under the arm of the dress.

Sew the remaining side seam of the bodice and skirt in one continuous seam.

Pin the shoulders.

Sew the shoulder seams.

Sew the underarm seam of the sleeves.

Pin the sleeve to the dress. My sleeve was too big, but I liked this as I would be able to pleat the excess fabric. As the sleeve is so small, it will result in a sleeve that looks more like a frill than an actual sleeve, adding to the playfulness of the dress.

Sew the sleeve to the dress.

Hem the sleeve.

Hem the skirt.

Once I had attached the sleeves, I realized how cute the dress would be if it was worn off-the-shoulder. I therefore cut the neckline bigger than it had been. I then pinned bias binding to the neckline.

Sew the bias binding onto the neckline.

Fold the bias binding in and pin to the inside of the dress.

Sew by hand to attach the bias binding on the inside of the dress.

I then cut a 'belt' from wide ribbon I had and melted the edges with a flame to keep it from fraying. This I tied around the waist of the dress in a playful gesture.

My niece loved the idea of wearing the dress off the shoulder and she was thrilled with the belt!

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy the books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.

Jy kan Kom Ons Teken en Verf Tuinstories hier koop.
Jy kan Kom Ons Kleur Tuinstories In hier koop.
Jy kan Tuinstories hier koop.
You can follow Miekie's daily Bible Study blog, Bybel Legkaart, here in English & Afrikaans.
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