Learn step-by-step how to design and sew a girl's summer dress with a free downloadable pattern.
Are you looking for free dress patterns for your little girl this summer? Then sew this colorful tiered dress in bright, summery colors and watch her wear it with style and comfort.
learn to make an adorable little girl's romper with this free sewing tutorial. free printable pattern in size 4T included.
Free pattern and tutorial - flutter sleeve peasant top for your little girl. This peasant top is a lovely basic and a quick sew.
I'm excited to present a new sundress pattern for your little girl this week and I have named it “The Mallory Dress”. This dress pattern may seem intricate, but it's actually quite simple to make.
Easy and fun sewing pattern ideas for halter dresses & blouses! Dress them up or down. Make a halter dress or a halter top this summer!
Welcome back! When I think about Dress A Girl Around the World I think about pillowcase dresses. It is a great little dress pattern…the length can be adjusted with the ties, and the width has plenty of ease. This tutorial includes step by step instructions for making the standard pillowcase dress with ties on the shoulders. This is a chart of the finished dress lengths. Sometimes it is difficult to make a dress the correct number of inches so here is a range. Do you know what size dress you would like to make? Take a look at the chart below. Size/years old Finished Dress Length Infant 14-16 inches 1-2 years 17-19 inches 3-4 years 20-22 inches 5-6 years 23-25 inches 7-8 years 26-28 inches 9-10 29-30 inches 11 31-33 inches 12-14 34-35 inches There is one quick thing you need to do before we get started. You need to draw a template for the arm opening. Here is a photo of my templates in S, M, and L. Get out a piece of paper or cardboard to draw your template on. I am going to give you the measurements for the width and length. The curved line should go straight down for about 3 inches and then curve in a J shape. No matter how your curve looks it will work out as long as you have the length width measured correctly. Template measurements: (width then length) Small 1 1/2" x 4 1/2" to fit infant to size 4 Medium 2" x 5" to fit child size 5 to 9 Large 2 1/4" x 6" to fit child 9 to 14 Let's get started! For those of you that bought a pillowcase, choose the length of the dress that you wish to make and add one inch. Take into consideration the width of your pillowcase particularly if it is large or king size. Some king size pillowcase are pretty narrow and you don’t want to make a dress too narrow to run or play in. If you are more of a visual person (like me) take a tape measure and measure the width of the pillowcase x 2 and put the tape around your own legs just below the knee. What do you think? Is it too narrow? If so make a smaller size and you can use the leftover fabric to make pockets. Lay your pillowcase flat on a flat surface. With a yard stick measure from the hem to the desired length + 1 inch. Cut across the closed end. Pillowcase people skip the following paragraph and pick up at the pink sentence below. (scroll down) For those of you that bought fabric, choose the length of dress that you wish to make and add two inches to the length the width will be whatever the width of the fabric is… we’re going to take advantage of those selvages. Go ahead and cut your dress the length you’ve chosen. Put the selvages together and seam the length of the dress. If you do not have selvages zig zag from top to bottom to make sure that this seam does not come apart. Now let’s put in a hem. On one end of the fabric tube turn up ½” all the way around the dress, pressing as you fold. After you’ve completed this go around again folding up another ½”. Stitch close to the edge of your hem with your machine. We should ALL have a tube of fabric with a hem on one end. Lay your tube out flat with the seam on the side rather than down the back. It will be much less noticeable and both the front and back will appear seamless. Trace and cut your arm openings. Your fabric should look like this. It’s starting to look a little like a dress isn’t it? On the top front fold over ¼” and press. Now fold over ¾” and press firmly. Flip the dress over and do the same thing on the top of the back of the dress. Stitch close to the edge along the fold on the front and the back. After you finish, press the casing one more time. Dress Size Elastic Length 6 mo to 5 6” 6 to 9 7” 10 to 12 8’ Select the size dress you are making. You will need to cut two pieces of 3/8 or ½ inch elastic. (If you prefer you can leave the elastic in once piece for example if you are making a size 6 dress you will cut the elastic 14 inches and mark the center with a pin or marker. (I like to do this because it is easy for short pieces of elastic to get away). Put a safety pin on the end of the elastic and push it through the casing. When the center of your elastic reaches one end, pin or secure with a few stitches, clip the end of the elastic and continue across. While the safety pin is still attached fasten the end securely with a stitch or pin. Do not stretch out to distribute the gathers…we’ll do that later. Turn the dress over and repeat on the other side. If you used pins to hold the elastic tack all four of the elastic ends using a zig zag stitch. Make sure that you can see the ends of elastic so they will be well secured. This is what your dress should look like…if it does give yourself a pat on the back. Now for the ties. Find the length of ties that correspond to the size dress that you are making and cut two. It will take one package to make one dress unless you are making an infant size dress. If you buy 2 packages you will have enough tape to make 3 dresses. Size Tie Length Infant 24 Small 30 Medium 36 Large 38 If you look very closely at most bias tape while it is folded, one edge will appear to be a little wider. You can see it pretty well on the tape edge on the left. The wider side will go to the inside of the dress that way when you sew the tape about the arm opening you won’t have to worry about catching the edge of the tape that is out of sight. Fold in and press the ends of the ties. Fold you ties in half and mark with a pin. With the right side of the fabric facing out pin the center of the bias tape to the center of the underarm. Remember the widest edge of the bias tape needs to go on the inside of arm opening. Make sure the dress fabric is all the way in to the fold. Pin every inch or so to make sure that the fabric doesn’t slip out. Lay your dress out with ties laid up like this. You start sewing on the top of the left tie. Sew the edges together with a straight stitch. When you get to the dress fabric keep sewing removing the pins one at a time and then continue sewing up to the end of the tie. You will be sewing a giant U. Repeat on the other side. *If it is easier you can sew around the U with a zig zag stitch. Look on the inside of the arm opening and make sure that you caught all of the edges. Turn your dress inside out and clip all the threads, check your seams and the hem. You are finished! Flip your dress right side out, tie you ties and hang your dress up and admire your work. GOOD JOB! Now it is time to embellish your dress and make it your own!
Dowload the free pattern for the Flutterby Top from Mabey She Made It. The Flutterby Top pattern is for 18-months and is a free sewing pattern.
Use one of these best free girls dress patterns and sew a cute girls dress for your girl this summer!
All my readers must be familiar with my easy baby girl dress pattern. This is my most famous pattern to date, having been repinned over 150,000 times. The pattern has been available only
I want to give a shout out to everyone that has enjoyed my “How To Make The Best Dress Ever” tutorial. Thank you for your thoughtful comments and suggestions on how to make it even better! To date nearly 30,000 people have dropped in to take a look at it. That is pretty awesome! “How To Make The Best T-Shirt Dress Ever” is my newest tutorial. T-shirt dresses are so easy to make that even a person with very little experience can sew a cute dress. If you already know how to sew you might want to make several. So without further ado let’s get started! First you need to gather up your materials. One t-shirt ½ to 1 yd of fabric depending on the size Thread and sewing supplies, scissors, pins, tape measure Have you ever noticed that little girls, particularly when they are young, have protruding tummies? It is for that reason I cut the lower portion of the t-shirt off so that the fabric falls loosely from above the tummy. Cutting the tee will make the t-shirt dress look more like a dress and less like a t-shirt with a skirt sewn on the bottom of it. I know you hate to cut off a perfectly good t-shirt but it will be worth it and you will be able to use the bottom of the tee for a headband or braided bracelet. Trust me on this one. We’re going to start by making a well constructed dress. After we finish it up you can embellish it anyway that you like. Okay enough chit-chat from me let's move on. I’m using a solid navy blue sleeveless top I bought on sale at the end of summer last year. It is 100% cotton. For the skirt choose a 100% cotton fabric. Do not use solid white or pastels or sheer fabrics like voile or gauze that you can see thru. Just to make sure that you’ve chosen a good dress fabric slip your hand in between the layers to be certain you can't see your hand. If you aren't sure you should probably leave it on the shelf and choose something else. I think I can safely say that all little girls like bright colors and playful prints. Ready? Let’s start off by cutting part of the body of the t-shirt off. Turn the t-shirt inside out and measure down from the top of the arm opening 3” on both side and mark with a pin. Your top should look like this. One of the things that really bugs me about t-shirt dresses is how the t-shirt stretches when the skirt is attached. Here’s a little trick to eliminate the problem. Cut two 1” strips of light weight iron-on Pelon interfacing. Lay one of the strip of the Pelon across the shirt right above the pins that you used to mark where you are going to cut. Now flip the t-shirt over and do it again on that side. This is the scary part...cut all the way across the t-shirt along the bottom edge of the white strip you just ironed on. You're going to feel like you cut it too short but it won't be. Does it look like this? Good job! Trim the ends of the interfacing if needed and sew along the side seams and reinforce with a zig-zag stitch. Put your bodice to the side while we work on the skirt. All sizes use the full width of the fabric…selvage to selvage. By using the selvages it will keep the seam from raveling. Make sure if you have a printed selvage like mine that the seam is deep enough to hide it. On this fabric ½” should be deep enough. You want to sew just over far enough that the white edges are hidden. Here we go...sew top to bottom. Don't worry about the length of your fabric we are going to hem it later. After you’ve sewn in the side seam press it open so that it lays flat. In this tutorial you are going to put the seam on the side so that the front and back of the dress appear seamless. Years ago we might have put the seam down the back so that it could button or a zipper sewn in but not today. The skirt will appear to be virtually seamless with the seam on the side under the arm. I promise you will be thrilled with the results when you finish. So let's lay the seamed skirt flat on the table. Place a pin on the side opposite the seam to mark the other half of the dress. Then two other pins go in the middle of the front and back. I measured with a tape but you can fold it in half if that is easier. Basically you want to mark both sides and the center front and the center back. The dress is now marked on both sides and center back and front. Like this. Now the magic begins. Lay the dress on the table with the pins and raw edges at the top. Starting at the center back or center front (it doesn’t matter) start putting in pleats. No measuring necessary. Start in the center and pinch pleat from the center toward the side seam, like this. All of the pleats move away from the center. This is one half of my front. My pleats are about 1 to 1 ½” wide and a ½” deep. Go ahead and pleat all around the top starting in the center and pleating toward the side seam. You be able to put in 3 or 4 and the 4th one might be a little skimpy but that's okay keep going. This is sort of an aerial view of the pleats. When you are finished pleating it will look like this. Congratulations you just finished the most difficult part of the dress! Why pleats rather than gathering you might wonder. Pleats are faster to put in and lay flatter for shipping, which is a good thing when you are packing hundreds of dresses. Sew all the way around pressing the pleats down as you sew over them. If you have a serger use it and if you don’t you can zig zag the seam like I did in this photo. Mine isn't pretty...but it's secure and won't ravel. Remember that little piece of stabilizer that we ironed in at the beginning of this tutorial? This is going to keep your knit shirt top from stretching when you sew around. Pretty awesome! Clip all the threads and turn the dress right side out. On the outside of the dress on the knit top stitch about 1/4" to 3/8” all the way around. Start at the side seam and go all the way around. Now all that is left is the hem and you’re finished! My t-shirt is a size 2-3. So using the pillowcase dress length chart below measure down the front from the center of the arm opening to the hem. I want my finished dress length to be 20” so I am going to cut the bottom of the dress off at 21” and that will give me 1” for a hem. Size/Years old Finished Dress Length Infant 14-16” 1-2 years 17-19” 3-4 years 20-22” 5-6 years 23-25” 7-8 years 26-28” 9-10 29-30” 11 31-33” 12-14 34-35” I cut the excess off with my rotary cutter or scissors. Set the scrap to the side. When I learned to sew years ago I was taught to put in a generous hem so that it could be let down as a child grew. Today sewers are using a new method, one that I admit I resisted in the beginning….but no longer. Let’s hem the dress using the Easy Peasy method. Put that tape measure or ruler to the side you won't need it. Fold up ½” all the way around the hem pressing as you go. I don’t measure I just fold and press and you can do it too. After you get all the way around do it again, this second fold will be really easy. Press as you go. When you finish pressing your hem stitch as close as you can to the fold. That's it you’ve finished your t-shirt dress! Slip your dress on a little hanger and put it up so you can admire your work, and have a cup of tea. I am so proud of YOU! Feeling confidant? Want to put a little polish on the cute little dress? Let's use that piece of fabric that you cut off the bottom and make some ties for the back. Cut it in half. You can make a long tube and turn it inside out OR you can fold and steam ¼ inch on the sides and one end. Fold it in half matching the long sides and one end. Edge stitch the end and the length of the tie. Sew as close to the edge as you can catching all the layers. You might want to pin it OR live dangerously like I do and match it as you sew along. Make a second tie – fold, press and sew. At the underarm of the t-shirt side seam pin one of the ties. The ties will be toward the front which will seem wrong but it’s fine. It is hard to describe so look at the photo below and attach one of the ties. Now fold the tie back on itself so that the ties are facing the back of the dress and tack it down with machine stitching about ½” from the side seam. You did it! Great job! If you would like to make a dress for a little girl who needs one I invite you to click on the little Dress A Girl button at the top right of this tutorial and learn how you can or go to www.DressAGirlAroundTheWorld.com Also with regard to this t-shirt dress pattern...some mission groups prefer pillowcase dresses as they are easier to pack and take up less space. If you have questions about this contact your Ambassador. If you don't know who your ambassador is please go to www.DressAGirlAroundTheWorld.com to find a list of names.
Use one of these best free girls dress patterns and sew a cute girls dress for your girl this summer!
This tutorial will take you through instructions to make a girl's peasant dress in just 5 easy steps. Try it, you will surely love it!
Use one of these best free girls dress patterns and sew a cute girls dress for your girl this summer!
This tutorial will take you through instructions to make a girl's peasant dress in just 5 easy steps. Try it, you will surely love it!
I am absolutely in love with this free baby sundress sewing pattern. I love the elasticized back and the straps that fastens by buttons.
Learn how to make adorable doll clothes with this easy DIY project. This is a doll dress sewing pattern, that will upgrade your little girl’s AG doll wardrobe with minimal effort.
Make a versatile sleeveless dress that is nice enough for special events & church on Sunday, yet still casual for everyday with my F...
A free tutorial and sewing pattern for a child's bomber jacket.
See two of many possibilities with the girl's Geranium dress pattern featured by Zen Chic, and get this week's free block pattern for Blockheads 2020.
Pillowcase Nightgowns using vintage pillowcases and lace. So cute and so easy!
Double gauze ❤️ THE fabric that summer is made of! Sew the prettiest dresses for your little girl with these free muslin dress sewing pattern
Summer is right around the corner & the temperature outside is already there: hot & sun-filled. Dressing the kids is a challenge for ma...
DIY Little Girl Fabric Backpack Free Sewing Pattern
I'm happy to present a new free pattern download today! Yay!!! *kermit arms*"Little Geranium" is a 0-3 month-size pattern excerpt from the original Geranium Dress Pattern; it is the essentially...
Create your own DIY Halloween Costume and stand out from the crowd. Do it yourself! Here are 5 ways to do it for pennies!
Comfy and sweet - get this free baby bloomers pattern for your little one. Learn how to make bloomers in 5 simple steps.
I just have to show the back first on this dress right?! I need to first start out by giving credit to the photographer Michelle […]
Learn how to sew a dress that will turn heads with the help of this page, 75+ Free Dress Patterns for Sewing. You'll find free little girl dress patterns, free pillowcase dress patterns, and other simple dress patterns in this stylish sewing collection. If you're looking for instructions on how to sew a dress for summer, the holidays, or special occasions, look no further. Learn to sew dresses for yourself, your kids, and even babies with these free patterns! Sewing dresses has never been easier with our collection of DIY dresses. Our free baby dress patterns are simply the cutest, and our summer dress patterns are so on-trend that you'll never want to spend your money at the mall again. We could go on, but we'll let you browse our selection yourself! Whatever it is you need to make, whether it's for your own closet or for your little girl's wardrobe, you're sure to find a suitable dress pattern here. And with this much variety, your closet will be full and fabulous. The most difficult part will be narrowing down your next few outfits. Speaking of variety, join our weekly newsletter for the best sewing tutorials, projects, and resources. Sign Up for Free Patterns Plus! If you're new to sewing, don't miss our video tutorial on how to make a body form. It's a great way to make clothes to custom-fit your body!
This is an easy baby girl dress sewing pattern, which does not take much time or fabric to sew. You can complete it quickly to get a boutique style dress!
Click HERE to go to the free download immediately! Are you ready to get creative? The ever so popular Peppermint Swirl Dress PDF Pattern has been us...
Are you looking for a free sewing purse pattern to sew for a toddler or small child? Learn about this precious free girls purse pattern from Sewing Times.
I just received my first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine yesterday, so I am hopeful that one day soon we might be able to take vacations again! But what better way to spend my time while I wait for my second dose and wait for my fellow humans to get vaccinated than to make some
Wem das Smoken jetzt richtig Spaß gemacht hat, für den habe ich was schönes: eine Nähanleitung für ein einfach zu nähendes Kinder-Sommerkleidchen.
Learn the easiest way to sew a pillowcase dress! This post provides color photos, cutting charts, and lots of useful information. Start your dress today!
