free dress sewing patterns - knit dresses

I received fabric in exchange for this post.

Inside: Use free dress sewing patterns to learn how to add a ruffle to a circle skirt or half circle skirt to create a fun look. This ruffle can be added to a skirt or a dress and is helpful when the skirt cannot be longer due to fabric width.

ruffled half circle skirt and free dress sewing patterns

I’m super excite about todays “favorite things” tour. This post is full of some of my favorite things, free dress sewing patterns, mommy and me dresses, how to use clear elastic and a simple sewing hack to add length to a circle skirt.

Favorite things blog tour –

I’ve been part of the Raspberry Creek Fabric promo team this last year and we finishing our promo year with a fun “favorite things” blog tour. Make sure to head over to the RCF facebook group for daily giveaways!

One of my favorite things for the past few years has been ordering quality fabric from Raspberry Creek and it’s been fun doing promo this year.

Here are all the fun posts as part of the tour. New posts are up each day, so depending on when are reading this the post may or may not be live yet.

Head to all the stops on this week’s tour:

Monday: Sewjourns, Sewing and Things, and Sew Mary Mac

Tuesday: Life Sew Savory, Made By Kates, and SewSophieLynn

Wednesday: Sweet Mama Life, Replicate Then Deviate, and Stitching and Making

Thursday: Handcrafted By RED, My Sew Bliss, and Kainara Stitches

Friday: It’s Liesel, Tessa Does for Love Notions, and Margarita on the Ross

I’ll be giving you a great tutorial for adding length to a half circle skirt with a ruffle and talking about some of my favorite things. Rose and I are both wearing dressed here made from free sewing patterns available right here on my site.

I realized when I was sewing my skirt that it wasn’t as long as I wanted it to be and I couldn’t make it longer as you are limited by fabric width when making circle skirts. I had never added a ruffle to a circle skirt before but I am so pleased with how it turned out.

Favorite Sewing Notion –

My “favorite” in the giveaway is clear elastic… I used this in the waistbands of this dress for greater stability. Want to more about sewing with clear elastic? Check out this post giving you all the details for sewing clear elastic.

Free Dress Sewing Patterns –

OK! Let’s first talk about what patterns I used to create these looks. Rose’s dress is the new FREE GIRLS TSHIRT DRESS. I used the half circle shirt options.

My dress combines the women’s simple summer tank with a half circle skirt {and the added ruffle tutorial you can find below} The SIMPLE SUMMER TANK LINK HERE and HALF CIRCLE SKIRT TUTORIAL HERE. I simply shorten the tank and then added a half circle skirt.

My problem was that the width of my fabric didn’t allow for the skirt to be any longer… I think my ruffle solution is pretty great.

Ruffled Half Circle Skirt

You will see that the left side of my fabric here is the shorted side. This is the longest my skirt can be. After I cut out the waist circle I am limited by that length.

I cut the skirt as long as I could. If this is still not long enough for you, adding a ruffle might be a great options. One side of my skirt here is a fold, and the skirt will have a back seam. I had to piece my ruffle together.

I cut the ruffle 4″ tall {you can cut any height} and wanted to have 1.5 x the length on the ruffle. Measure the bottom edge of the skirt and record the length. Sew the short ends together to create a long strip.

Make one long edge the bottom of the dress and finish the seams so the bottom can stay raw. If you used a serger finish the loose ends. If you back stitched on your sewing machine you should be fine.

There are two ways to sew the ruffle. You can sew up the back seam first, and sew the ruffle on as a circle OR leave the back seam open and then sew it last after the ruffle is on.

Either way, gather the ruffle to match the bottom of the skirt. Need help gathering? Check out this post with five ways to gather. I used the serger method for the ruffle.