Girls Easy Zipper Dress Free Pattern

Super excited to have a free pattern to share with you today. Just in time for spring, this easy zipper dress free pattern is adorable and pretty simple to make too! Nervous about zippers? I’ll walk you through it, and I use the most basic zipper technique for this dress. I’ve drafted this pattern based on the free t-shirt pattern for girls, and made only a short sleeve version, but you could easily make this with long sleeves. The zipper in the back helps the dress slip on and off easily, yet has a great fitted look. Join my FB group for pattern support and other free patterns. Make sure to check out all my Free sewing patterns here.

I’m want to try to make this with a woven top, so if you try, let me know how it goes! Until then, this dress is designed for a knit top and a woven bottom. I used the most adorable table cloth from IKEA for the skirt. The cloth was too big for our table, so I was able to trim enough for this skirt AND still keep my table covered. Win-win! Enjoy all these cute photos of Rose and at the bottom you can find all the information for the free pattern and tutorial. 

Okay! Head over to page 2 for the easy zipper dress free pattern file and instructions.

DOWNLOAD THE ZIPPER DRESS HERE

Okay, let’s dive right in! You can head over to MY SHOP to download and print your pattern. Here’s the size chart to help you chose a size. The pattern pieces should all be cut from KNIT fabric. The skirt can be cut from knit or woven fabric. The neck and arm bindings can be cut from contrasting knit or the same as the shirt top. All seams are sewn with a 3/8″ seam allowance.  {unless otherwise noted} You will need approx. 1/2 yard for knit shirt and 1/2-1 yarn knit or woven for skirt. Also needed is 1 10-12″ zipper.

Cut bindings 1.5″ x lengths as described below. …

 Cut out the pieces as direction on the pattern pieces.

For the sleeves you will cut the binding the same length as the sleeve bottom. Example.. 1.5″ width x 8″ {if that was the width of the sleeve. Fold the binding with right sides together and sew to sleeve bottom. I use a narrow 1/4″ seam here.

You can fold the binding open and top-stitch if you want. Add binding to both sleeves.

With right sides together sew the front and back together at the shoulders. The back is in two pieces.

Measure around the neckline and record the length. Subtract 2″ from this length {20 – 2 = 18}.  Example: cut 1.5″ width x 18″. Fold wrong sides together and round the end corners.

Line up the curved edge  1/2″ from the back edge. Pin around the neckline finishing the other side 1/2″ from the edge again.

Sew around with 1/4″ seam allowance. Top-stitch if desired.

Pin the sleeve to the arm opening on shirt top with right sides together. The sleeve is made large to add two pleats on either side of the shoulder seam. Pin from outer edges towards the center and create two pleats in the center.

With right sides touching pin the sleeve and side edge together. Sew.

You should now have an open back shirt like this: With your woven or knit skirt panels sew them together at the side seams {shorter side} Then CUT open at the center of one panel to create the back seam. Finish the raw edges of the back with a serger or zig zag. Gather the top of the skirt until it matches the width of the shirt top bottom. Need help gathering? I’ve got a post all about gathering HERE. Gather until the sides match as arrows show. 

Pin right sides together and sew. 

Fold dress right sides touching and line up the open back. Lay your zipper next to the dress. Line up the top of the zipper pull with the top of the shirt and then mark the bottom with a pin. Sew the back with a 1″ seam allowance and a LONG BASTING STITCH from the top to the pin, switch to a normal stitch, then you can ease back out to 3/8 to bottom of the skirt. With the back of the dress facing you WRONG side out, open up the wide seam allowance. Lay the zipper face down so you are looking at the back side. The zipper teeth should lay right on the seam line. Pin.  If I turn the dress right side out, this is what the pinned zip looks like now. You can check that the back lines up at this point. My skirt is not lined up perfectly in this photo.  Sew the zipper to the dress, though both layers of the fabric {shirt back and folded seam allowance}. Sew as close to the zipper teeth as your zipper foot will allow.  The inside of the dress: The outside of the dress:

Open the basting stitches that are over the zipper teeth to expose the zipper.  Fold over any extra zipper tab and hand sew to the seam allowance.  The edges of the neck binding should just come to where the zipper starts.  Secure the bottom of zipper by connecting your stitches that hold the zipper in place across the bottom. Hem the skirt and shorten as desired. I serged around the bottom then folded up a 1″ hem and double stitched it. You can also press up 1/4″, then another 3/4″ inch to enclose the hem. 

You are done! Questions? Ask in the FB group! You can always e-mail me too! Show off your finished photos in the group! We’d love to see what you’ve made.

Want to see more photos? you can head back to the main page for lots more photos of this cute dress.

If you still go grab the pattern you can go download the pattern here now.