20 minute dress start to finish

I woke from my usual cat napping with a bolt of inspiration.  Went into my sewing room and wham, bam, just like that a groovy new dress was born.

Here it is as part of an ensemble with my chiffon bolero and matching underslip, striped sox and ballet flats.

~ The fabric is described as black, soft beige & white montage print dotted stretch netting lace ~

I was thrilled it could be so painlessly easy.  And fast.  And even look good.

~ and here it is on its own ~

I'm gonna show the how-to for those that care, but first a couple more shots of me against the pea green wall...

~ with my pink corduroy Becca Jacket, pattern by Tina Givens

~ and of course, my lovely Trippen ballet shoes from ebay ~

You'll crack up seeing my photo "tutorial" for the dress, so keep on going...



Okay now, I've never done one of these how-to's before and I don't know how to write or draw on photos so....

• first I took 2 yards total of fabric that happened to be 54" wide.  It was the stretch mesh shown above, so it doesn't fray (i.e., doesn't need hemming or finished seams).  

~ this newspaper is an example of the 2 yds, however wide fabric ~

• secondly, I folded the fabric in half, lengthwise, so the selvedge edges were together at the top and the fold was at the bottom.  

~ fabric is folded lengthwise, fold at bottom, selvedges meeting together at top ~

•  third, fold the fabric in half, top to bottom, so raw edges meet at your right side and the folded section will be on your left side.

~ so it looks like this, folded in quarters ~

•   here's a close-up so you can see where the folded edges end up

~ at top on your left and at bottom ~

•  okay, now you're ready to cut the dress out of the folded fabric. This is a sample of the pattern piece, or shape I used for mine.  You could use whatever shape you want, from bodycon to shift to full.  You can trace off a shirt or dress that fits you well or a pattern shape you like.  Or just figure out how wide it needs to be from CF (center front) to under arm, or bust, or hips, whatever.  I don't like form fitting, so I wanted something loose and drapey. 

~ the CF goes along the fold at the bottom and is half the width of your dress ~

 The sleeve of the pattern goes to the top of the fold on the right and form 1/2 of the sleeves.

• I cut a small slit for a boat-type neckline a the CF.  Make it small, you can always go bigger, but never smaller.

~ pretend this white paper is your cut fabric and unfold it in half ~

• Unfold your fabric again and it will look like this

~ it is now one single layer ~

•  And you're going to fold your fabric in half again, but this time with the right sides of the fabric facing each other and so it looks like a dress.

~ now we're going to turn it around so it does looks like a dress ~

~ there's your dress ~

• Just run a seam starting at the end of the sleeve, down the arm, and down the skirt to it's hem.  Do the same on the other side.  And if you're using stretch mesh (or some other non-ravel fabric), you're done.  If you're not, you'll need to hem it, finish the seams and bias tape the neckline.

I added side seam pockets because I can't live without them.  And it's no big deal to do.  Just cut 4 pocket shapes and 1st sew each one onto each dress side.  Then when you place the dress together as shown above and sew the sleeve etc. together, include sewing the pocket patches as well.  I'm not going to show you, cuz this tute as simple as it is, has taken me half my life already.  geez.

I'm dashing off the Patti's Visibles party at Not Dead Yet Style before it's too late.  See you there.