Quick Summer Dress

No Pattern Necessary!

 

What you will need for this project:

A length of border print cotton or cotton blend fabric (I used a Hawaiian Print cotton crepe) that measures at least 12" more than your hip measurement at the widest point.

A fitted tee shirt that fits you in a coordinating color to the print in the fabric.  Choose a tee shirt that has a 'hefty' fabric.  If it feels like cheesecloth, it's not suitable for this project.

You will also need ½ yard of ½" wide KNIT elastic and thread that MATCHES the color of the tee shirt (yes, I know the thread in my picture doesn't, but I wanted it to show up against the white ground).

I do suggest pre-washing the tee shirt and the fabric if you are worried about shrinkage.

The tools you will use include scissors, a hard edge ruler, a tape measure, a hem gauge and a few straight pins. You need something that can write on fabric - any one of the items at left will work.

You will also need a sewing machine (straight stitch is all it has to do) and an iron and ironing board.

 
Put the tee shirt on and in a mirror, place the top of the tape where you want your waist seam to be (empire looks best on me so I place it just below my bust) and write down the measurement on the tape measure where the hem of the shirt meets it.

Take the shirt off and lay it flat on your work surface.  Subtract ¾" from the measurement you wrote down earlier and that new number is the amount of fabric you are going to cut off of the tee shirt.  Place the hard edge ruler vertically on the shirt from the hem up, measuring up the amount that will be cut off.  Mark the shirt with chalk at that point.  Do this 3 or 4 places across the shirt, always measuring up the same distance from the hem.

Now, using the long edge of the ruler, draw a straight line which connects the marks - if one is a little above or below, don't worry about it -- you want a straight line to follow when you cut.

BEFORE YOU CUT, make sure that the tee shirt is EVEN ACROSS THE HEM - both layers should meet.  Make sure the tee shirt is laying smoothly on the table, no wrinkles.

Then cut across the shirt where you have marked your line.

Now take the border print yardage in hand.  If you have access to a serger, overlock the two raw edges (the cut ends).  If you do not have access to a serger, you can pink or clean finish the edges.   The pictures at left show you how to clean finish seam allowances.

With a border print fabric, you need to figure out how long you want the dress, prior to doing any sewing.  I like my dresses ankle length (I'm 5'2"), so I did not cut any length off my 44" wide fabric.  However, if you want a shorter dress, knee length perhaps, you will need to determine the length of the skirt now and cut that amount off the TOP edge of the fabric -- the edge without the border detail).  Remember to leave ¾" up at the top for seam allowance and a HEM allowance (at least 1") at the bottom.

Here I have already overlocked the raw edges of my yardage.  Place the two raw edges right sides together.  Line up the raw edges, working from the hem (where the border interest is) up.  I sew a great deal without pins, using them only to mark critical points such as where I want to stop sewing to leave a side slit.  This pin was placed 17" up from the bottom of the seam.  I will stop sewing at this point leaving the remainder of the seam open for a side slit.  You can either leave part of the seam open or close it entirely - depends on the look you want and the length you have chosen for your skirt.

Start sewing at the top of the seam.  I am sewing the seam using a 5/8" seam allowance.

Here I have reached the pin marking where I want to stop sewing to leave an open length for my side slit.  Do NOT sew over the pin.  Remove it just as you come to it and then backtack.

Press the finished seam allowances open.  At this time you may also want to press the turnback for the side slit (it is the same width as your seam allowance).

Put the tee shirt inside the skirt - right sides together (the tee shirt is right sides out, the skirt is inside out).  Match the ONLY seam in the skirt up with the LEFT side seam of the tee shirt.  Pin in place.  To find the other 'side seam point' in the skirt just fold in half and place a pin in the fabric opposite the only side seam.  Match up the tee shirt's right side seam with that pin and pin in place.

 

The skirt is much larger than the tee shirt at this point. You need to pin out the fullness by forming pleats.

For my dress, I formed 8 pleats total around the waist seam.  There are two on each side of the front half and the back half.  Large pleats (around 1½" deep to 2" deep) will lay flatter than many small pleats - this gives the dress a trimmer look. 

 

 

For my dress, I formed a 2" deep pleat and a 1½" deep pleat starting 2" from the left side seam on the front.  I folded my pleats so that they lay with the crease AWAY from center front and center back.  Remember that whatever you do on the left you must do the mirror image of it on the left with the same exact measurements.

Form pleats in both the front and the back until you have pleated out all the fullness.
Now stitch around the seam with a 5/8" seam allowance.  Remember to remove the pins BEFORE the needle gets to them.  Sewing over pins can throw off the timing of your sewing machine.

Now that the waist seam is sewn, there's just a few finishing details left.  If you can, overlock the edges of the waist seam.  If you don't have a serger, don't worry, the next step will help keep that seam from raveling. 

Take a piece of ½" wide elastic that is about 8" SHORTER than the back half of the waist seam (The circumference of the entire waist seam, divided by 2, then subtract 8").  Stitch that piece of elastic to the SEAM ALLOWANCE across the BACK ONLY from side seam to side seam.  Stretch it as you stitch in order for it to gather up the back waist seam.

If you cannot overlock the seam allowances, continue stitching around the waist seam, but without elastic in the front.   This second row of stitching on the seam allowances will help deter raveling.
Turn up the hem on your dress and press it in place.  I like wide hems and I chose to hem mine so that the border detail is right at my hem (so I turned up just under 2").  Single needle topstitch the hem in place by following the selvage edge with the left edge of your presser foot as you stitch the hem down.

The very last thing you will sew is the topstitching on the side slit.  With the turnback pressed in place, you sew with the right side of the garment up (you're sewing 'blind', unable to see the edge of the seam allowance below so make sure you are sewing at a distance from the fold which will catch the turnback).  Stitch up to the point where the seam starts, put the needle down into the fabric, raise the presser foot, pivot 90 degrees and stitch across the seam, continuing until you are as far from the seam as you were on the other side.  Put the needle down into the fabric, raise the presser foot, pivot 90 degrees again and sew down the other side of the side slit.

When you're all done, the dress looks like this: