Easy Dress Tutorial {Dolman Sleeve}

I don’t sew clothes for myself very often… In fact I can’t remember the last time I’ve made a dress. So this Easy Dress Tutorial is a first for me. {maybe a last? ha!} Let me know what you think! Ps, don’t judge my modeling, its been a long time since I was on America’s Next Top Model {wink}
AND…
 I have several giveaways going on:
Kleenex Hand Towels
Baby Basket
$20 Southern Fabric
GO ENTER!

This dress took two attempts to make and started as a shirt, but I liked the length so much I didn’t trim it. I’m a fan of the legging, I know not everyone is, but I find this kind of dress so comfortable…

I also made a shirt… but.. something happened… You’ll have to read on to find out what happened to this cute shirt.

This is going to be a mini-tutorial, but I will walk you through the steps I used to make the shirt.

 

The photo with the pick shirt how the shape of the Dolman Sleeves compares to a t-shirt with regular sleeves. The armpits are rounded and slightly lower.

So let’s talk neck binding.. that’s really the only tricky part of this shirt…
 Cut the fabric as you would if you were making bias tape {and you are…}

I did a double fold bias..

and pinned it around the neck..

The slightly difficult part is the v-neck V. You can avoid this by making a rounded neck line, but I wanted to go for the v-neck. Start pinning the bias tape on one side of the V and then finish on the other.

In the middle put the right sided together and sew the mid-line seam right at the V.

Pin it down and sew around the neck.

 

The sleeves I just pinned and sewed… Sew the side seams and hem the bottom as desired. I left the pink dress unhemmed and the fabric just rolled. I wish I would have done this with the sleeves too…

I used a double needle to sew the neckline.. On the pink one I used a single, they both worked well.

and finally… the reason I have no pictures of me in the cute red shirt… I washed it and this it what happened: {WHAT? I even pre-washed the fabric… any ideas why?}

I like it with a belt too! I do want to sew more clothes for myself, its just more fun to sew kids clothes. I was inspired by how easy this was {the second time!} and how well it turned out… So… stay tuned!  I will be attempted more garments larger than a 5T in the near future!

Some other things I’ve sewed for myself… {not clothing!}

{see! I told you I don’t sew clothes for me very often!}

Shared on my Wed-Saturday link parties

Looking forward to seeing you around the blog…. don’t be a stranger!