While visiting my parents I found my old pale pink linen tunic. Unfortunately, it doesn’t fit me anymore. But seeing it, I’ve suddenly decided to make a summer dress for little Anna. The shimmery pink would suit her blond hair and blue eyes perfectly, I thought.
There were a few free toddler dress patterns over the web, but none of them fit the size of the tunic. That is why, I’ve drafted my own pattern and it went really well. I used one of Anna’s tank tops to sketch the bodice and the bottom of the tunic turned into a gathered skirt of the dress.Here’s what came up as the result:
Size: 2T-3T
Materials:
- 1 yard of 60in/150cm wide linen fabric
- 2.5inx 2.5in (6cm x 6cm) of contrasting fabric for the pocket
- 28in (70cm) of thin ribbon
- thread
- scissors
- pins/needles
- fabric marking pen
Print the pattern and cut:
Print the bodice pattern HERE .
For the skirt simply cut 2 rectangles of the following size:
length –14in/35cm
width – 20in/50cm
In my case, the final skirt length was 12.5 in/32 cm. If you’d like to increase it – add more length at this point.
Cut fabric
Cut 3 bodice pieces ( 1 front piece and 2 back pieces ) and 2 skirt pieces
Seam allowances: All seam allowances are 0.4in/1cm, unless otherwise stated in the tutorial ( Please, refer to the printable pattern).
Bodice:
1. Place the front and back parts of the bodice right side facing each other and sew the shoulder and side seams. Since the dress goes without the lining cut the seam allowance by approx. 0.25in and zigzag it.
2. Double hem the arm holes and the head opening.
Important: Make sure you clip the seam allowance every 0.5in at the curves ( as an alternative you can use pinking shears).
3. Zigzag the edges of the back opening and turn up your 1in seam allowance. Baste it to make sure everything remains at place and sew it very close to the edge (as shown at the picture below).
4. Cut two 14in/35 cm pieces of ribbon and hand stitch them to the neck opening as shown at the photo.
1. Cut a 2.5inx 2.5in (6cm x 6cm) rectangle from a contrasting fabric. Fold the 0.5in of seam allowance to the wrong side of the rectangle and stitch the pocket to the bodice. For more details and photos on how to sew the pocket, please, refer to my Ombre Pocket T-shirt Tutorial.
Skirt of the dress
1. Place the skirt parts right side together and sew the side seams. Hem the bottom edge of the skirt*
*Since I was recycling an old tunic instead of using the new fabric, I’ve skipped this step.
2. At the top of the skirt sew a row of a very loose straight stitch with low stitch tension. I prefer to make a separate row for the front part of the skirt and for the back part of the skirt, since it makes it easier to control the skirt folds later. Afterwards, grab the side threads of the baste stitch you’ve made and gently pull to gather the skirt. Pull until the skirt width matches the width of the bodice bottom.
3. Place the bodice with its right side out into the skirt being wrong side out. Match the side seams of the bodice and the skirt and pin them together. Distribute the gathers of the skirt evenly.
4. Sew the skirt to the bodice. I also zigzag together the hem, since the bodice has no lining and the place where bodice joins the skirt might be scratchy.
Thant’s it! The beautiful summer dress for your little one is ready!
Big thanks to my sister Mary for the lovely photos of Anna wearing her new dress.
Please, let me know if you find any mistakes or inaccuracies in this tutorial. We are all human and all make mistakes
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