How to Make a Dress at Home
While it might seem like a very complicated thing to do, basic dressmaking is actually not too difficult, and it’s a great way to learn different sewing techniques. Also, a handmade dress is a special garment that you can use to surprise someone special with or give as a gift.
5-Minute Crafts will show you how to make an elegant dress at home that you’d definitely be proud to find in any store window.
What you’ll need
- A sewing machine
- 5.5 yards of blue fabric that are 1 to 1.5 yards wide
- 15 inches of an elastic band
- A skein of white thread
- A set of tailor pins
- A safety pin
- Tailor scissors
- Tailor chalk
- An iron
- A T-shirt in your size
1. The middle part of the dress
1. Take 2 pieces of fabric that are 24 inches wide and 20 inches long, respectively, and place them on top of each other before folding them in half.
2. Find a T-shirt in your size. Fold it in half and place it on the fabric in such a way that it’s 4 inches away from the pleat you made in the previous step and 2 inches away from the top of the folded fabric.
3. Use your tailor chalk to outline the T-shirt on the right side.
4. Move the T-shirt away and use your scissors to cut off the excess fabric. Keep in mind that you should leave a bit less than half an inch to the right of the line you made with the chalk.
5. Unfold the fabric to see the pattern you just outlined with the chalk. Pin both pieces of fabric together along the upper part of the line to hold them together, but make sure you leave a margin of about 1/2 of an inch.
6. Place pins along the chalk lines on the right and left sides of the pattern too, excluding the shoulder area.
7. Sew the sides of the pattern along the chalk lines with a sewing machine.
8. Set the stitch type to “zigzag” and sew the edges of the pattern.
9. Turn the sewn pattern over. Fold back the top front.
10. Take about 1/4 of an inch from the edge of the shoulder fabric, fold it twice, and secure it with a pin.
11. Form these folds around the edge of the shoulder area on both sides and secure the pins.
12. Sew the folds with the sewing machine.
2. The upper part
13. Cut 2 pieces of fabric that are about 2 yards long and 1/4 of a yard wide.
14. Put them together.
15. Sew the short sides of the segments, keeping about 1/2 of an inch away from the edges.
16. Sew the edges of the seams with a zigzag stitch.
17. Unfold the pattern. Take the fabric 1/2 of an inch from the bottom edge, fold it, and iron it. Then fold another centimeter and iron it again. Fold the edge of the entire length of the pattern.
18. Sew the folds with the sewing machine.
3. The center
19. Unfold the top pattern and insert the middle pattern into it so that the top edges of both pieces form a line.
20. Unfold the front of the top middle.
21. Pin the top edges of both patterns.
22. Sew them with the sewing machine, joining the patterns along their entire length with a zigzag stitch.
23. Take 1/2 of an inch from the top edge of the fabric, fold it, and iron it. Fold the entire length of the sewn patterns.
24. Sew the folds with the sewing machine along the entire length, leaving about 1/2 of an inch free.
25. Take a safety pin. Fix it to the edge of the elastic and pass it through the fold that’s loose and seamless.
26. Stretch the elastic along the entire top of the dress, tie the ends, cut them off, and remove the pin.
4. The bottom part
27. Cut a piece of cloth 2.5 yards long and 0.5 yards wide. Fold 1/2 of an inch of the fabric twice from the bottom and sew it. Then fold the fabric in half. Leave 1 cm from the top edge and mark 2 parallel seams 1/2 of an inch apart with tailor chalk.
28. Set the maximum stitch length on the machine and sew both seams of the fabric. Leave about 4 inches of loose thread at the end.
29. Pull the loose threads and start fan-folding the fabric.
30. Pull the upper edges of the fabric completely down, tie the ends of the threads, and cut them.
31. Unfold the upper and lower patterns and pin them together from the inside.
32. Sew both parts of the dress using your sewing machine.
5. Your dress is done!
Cut any excess thread with a pair of scissors, check the quality of the seams, and sew anything over again if necessary. Then turn over the finished dress. It’s ready to be worn!