High Low Dress Pattern- Skirt Tutorial

Posted on October 9, 2018 by Emily 2 Comments. This post may contain affiliate links. Clicking and purchasing through them helps to keep the great content coming your way, thanks! Find all my favorite items in my Amazon SHOP HERE. Posts written in collaboration of Brother as a Brother Brand Ambassador.

I’m so excited about this high low dress pattern that I made last week. Didn’t the dress turn out gorgeous? Today I’m going to show you how to make a high low dress pattern out of any dress or skirt pattern you already have. I’ve got a very simple way to create the high low look that will give great results with not much stress {see how I didn’t say NO stress, haha} You will need to put on your thinking cap for a tiny bit of math, but we will try to keep this low stress.

High Low Dress Pattern- Skirt Tutorial

We had some gorgeous fall weather on Saturday and I’m glad I took advantage of it for photos as it’s been raining every since! I just love how FALL these photos are! I’m working on clothes for a professional photo shoot this weekend… we haven’t paid anyone to take our photos in a long time since I just usually snap family photos, but I don’t want to be the one organizing us and worrying about getting a good shot, so we are having photos taken… and Rose will be wearing this dress for some of the photos.

I just made a simple t-shirt dress for this pattern. I actually used the pattern of my favorite PJ top for the bodice, but you could also use my free t-shirt pattern for the top as well. {I do this all the time!}Shorten the top… {I had about 4″ under the arms}, then sew up the top as normal. I’ll show you how to cut the skirt with this fabulous high low hem below.

If you just want a regular hem skirt on the t-shirt dress you can cut two rectangles, {each at least double the front width}, sew the side seams and gather the top to match the shirt. Then just hem…. if you want to make this cute high low dress pattern you can follow my tutorial below.

how to add a high low hem to a dress

Okay, So I’m going to give you the number for my girls skirt. If you are making any other size you will have to adapt the measurements for your pattern. I measured Rose and I wanted the skirt to be 15″ long. This now becomes the side measurement, the front will be higher, and the back lower. The width of the front and back are depending on your size, but I like them to be at least double the width of the top front/back. So here are two rectangles I started with. The front is 15″ and the back is 2″ longer for the low hem. If you want it MORE dramatic, you will have to cut the back longer.

Fold both panels in half. Now let’s cut the hem. The front I cut UP on the fold side about 1.5″. You can start even higher for a shorter more dramatic difference. Start at the 1.5″ mark on the folded side and curve down to the other side of the fabric {dotted line}. The side seams stays the desired 15″. On the back {longer piece}, start on the loose edges of the fabric at the 15″ mark and curve down to the center fold. This will allow your side seams to meet and the front to curve up and the back to curve down.

Here is what it looks like when I sew the side seams together. Sew the side seams, gather the top to match the shirt bottom, them hem the skirt. Ease along the curve with a narrow hem for best results.

And there you go! A gorgeous High Low Dress Pattern- Skirt Tutorial that you can make with any shirt pattern OR a tutorial you can use with a dress/skirt pattern you have and like.