How to sew an easy girls dress. Learn to sew this cute girls gather dress using a free t-shirt pattern. Made with knit fabric.
Easy Sew Girls Dress
There's a lot to pack into this post, so get ready. I want to show you how I made these cute girls dresses with a free online sewing pattern.
I've made three of these dresses for my daughter already. They are fun to make, and my daughter loves them!
New to sewing? Here's all about how I learned to use my serger.
Remnant Friendly Girls Dress Idea
One reason I love these dresses is because they are very remnant friendly. You don't need long pieces of fabric that follow the grainline because the dress is cut at the bodice. For the rainbow dress, I made a size 5 dress with just 18" of knit fabric.
Plus, I still had just enough fabric scraps to make 2 rainbow patch pockets to go on the pink popsicle dress.
For the unicorn dress, I made the gathered dress, plus a pair of capri leggings to go with it, from just one yard of fabric.
The fabric for these dresses come from Frollien-S. I love them for soft organic kids fabric.
Prepare, Cut and Make the Dress Bodice
To me, sewing feels likes 90% preparing, measuring, cutting and deciding on the style. It's true for this dress too, because the actual sewing is straightforward. Let's get to it.
Start with This Free Boxy Tee Pattern for the Bodice
The three dresses in the photos all start with the free Misusu Rowan Tee pattern. I love this pattern so much.
The dress is inspired by Misusu's Ruffle Revolution post. But unfortunately, the directions are incomplete on their site. So here's how I made it happen.
You can use any boxy t-shirt pattern that you like for the top, or even a tank. But the free Rowan Tee sewing pattern works fabulously for sewing this girls knit dress. All the dresses in the photos are made using the scoop neck version.
Bodice Length
First, determine where you want the dress to start. You can see in the photos, all three dresses have different bodice and dress lengths. That's the beauty of sewing and customizing clothes.
There isn't a magic length for either the bodice or dress. A shorter bodice would be more of an empire waist. A longer bodice would make it look more like a drop waist.
I decided based on how much fabric I had, and where I wanted to place the pockets.
Once you decide, cut out your t-shirt pattern. Then, shorten the bodice front and back pattern pieces by cutting directly across. In the photo above, you can see I happened to cut across a "size blending line" on the pattern. Following the lines is an easy way to make sure the same amount is cut off the front and back bodice pieces.
Cut out your t-shirt pieces with the shortened bodice and set aside. This includes the neckband, and any arm bands or sleeves that you might want to use.
Decide and Prepare Any Pockets
Before you assemble and sew the bodice, decide if you want your dress to have pockets. If you want to add pockets, think about what kind of pockets you want to use.
For the longer bodice, I added 2 patch pockets to the front. For the dress with the shorter bodice, I added inline pockets to the gathered dress part.
- The free Rowan Tee includes Patch Pocket in the pattern. It's nice to size up on the pocket if it's not sitting on the chest.
- I used Little Lizard King free inseam pocket.
Sew the Dress Bodice
Once you decide on the pockets, make the bodice according to the t-shirt pattern, but do not hem the bottom. Generally, this is the last step of any t-shirt sewing pattern.
To prepare to attach the gathered dress, mark the center of the front bodice and back bodice with small snips or pins.
Cut Two Rectangle Fabric Pieces for the Gathered Dress Part
To make the dress, you need to cut out two rectangles, which will become the gathered dress part. The size of a rectangles depends on:
- how long you want the dress to be, and
- how gathered you want it to look.
Length of Dress (Length of Rectangle)
For reference, the length of the rainbow gathered skirt in the pictures is 9". Since I made the entire dress with an 18" remnant, I only had 9" left after I cut out the bodice. The 9" dress length works perfectly for my 5-year-old, who wears leggings under all her dresses anyway. She likes the 9" length because it's playground and bike friendly.
For the popsicle and unicorn dresses, I cut the dress a bit longer since I had the extra fabric.
Measurement for short side of rectangle: The length of the dress you want + seam allowance.
How Gathered and Ruffled Do You Want the Dress (Width of Rectangle)
To determine the width of the rectangle, decide how frilly and gathered you want the dress to look.
First, measure the bottom width of one bodice pattern. Next, depending on how gathered you want the dress to look, multiply the width by a number between 1.7 and 2.5. 1.7 will give you less gathers. 2.5 will give you more gathers.
For reference, the unicorn dress in the photos is about 2.5 times the bodice bottom width.
Measurement for long side of rectangle: Bodice bottom width times a number between 1.7 and 2.5 + seam allowance.
Once you decide on the length and width of the rectangle that you need, cut 2 pieces of fabric. After you make the gathers, one rectangle will attach to the front bodice and the second rectangle will attach to the back bodice.
How to Sew A Gathered Girls Dress
Sewing the gathers is a little tricky, but it's not too confusing if you take it slow. The first time I sewed gathers, I kept rereading instructions and watched videos as I did it.
This is a really good post about how to sew gathers from Tilly and the Buttons. It helped me really understand how to do it and make this dress.
Essentially in a few general steps:
- Place the rectangles right side together, and sew down both short sides.
- Mark the center of the front and back pieces with small snips.
- On both the front and back pieces, sew 3 lines of gather stitches 5mm (¼in), 12mm (½in) and 19mm (¾in) from the edge, using a long stitch length. You'll stitch 6 lines total, 3 on the front panel, 3 on the back panel. Leave long thread tails.
- Pull the thread tails to make the gathers. Distribute the gathers as evenly as you can.
- Match the gathered dress evenly to the t-shirt bodice, aligning the snips. I use lots and lots of these clips to hold everything in place.
- Sew or serge the gathered dress to the t-shirt bodice.
If you want more direction, Tilly also has instructions to sew a gathered dress in her Mini Makes book, based on her Tabitha T-Shirt pattern. This book helped me get started sewing kids clothes.
Finish Sewing This Girls Dress
The last thing to do is to hem the bottom of the dress. And that's it! We've turned a t-shirt pattern into a dress.
Tips, Tricks and Changes I Made When Sewing
The Rowan Tee pattern works great. It's a bit on the boxy side, so sizing down also works, especially if you make the scoop neck version. I think the popsicle dress is one size smaller than the unicorn dress, but it's not noticeable when my daughter wears it.
Rolled Hem
For the rainbow dress, I shortened the sleeves a bit because I only had 18" of fabric to work with. Because I shortened the sleeves, I finished it with a rolled hem edge.
With the rolled hem edge, the sleeves roll in a bit because the fabric curls. My daughter prefers it that way, so asked me to do it again for the popsicle dress. It's more noticeable on the popsicle dress in the photos.
I also used a rolled hem for the bottoms of the rainbow and popsicle dresses. The fabric does curl up, but she says she wants it that way because she likes the extra frilliness.
Pattern Matching
Gathered dresses require some attention to pattern marking. For example, in the unicorn dress, you can see I didn't do a good job matching. The gathered dress starts with extra unicorn legs.
Have Fun and Sew this Easy Girls Dress
I hope this post is helpful if you are planning to sew a girls dress. Can you believe it's made with a free pattern?
Have any questions? Ask below and I'll try my best to help. Also, I'd love any tips you can share too!
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