One thing I really love about summer is wearing dresses. There is just something so fun about it! While I usually only make dresses for the girls (because I find it way easier) but decided I would try my hand at making myself a dress.
My first attempt turned out pretty good:
I made some minor adjustments to the pattern, and then made one for the Fourth of July (I had a super hard time getting a good picture taking them by myself.
Now, I would like to share with you the process I used to make the pattern for my dress!
First off, I wanted to make the bodice. I knew where I wanted the seams of the front panel to be centered on my front. For me, that measurement was 9.75″.
Next you need to create some extra space for “the girls”. To do this I drew a diagonal line to the center of each boob, like so.
Then figure out how long you want you bodice, how wide you want the front panel at your waist. This is what I ended up with.
Finally, cut your pattern out, fold it in half, and cut out a curve, as deep or shallow as you want.
*Note, after sewing my dress I ended up making it a little more shallow of a curve.
Next up are the sides:
I pinned the bodice front to my shirt at about the spot I wanted it so that I would be able to take some measurements. First up, measure from the bottom of the bodice front to where the side seam of your shirt. For me, it was about 7″.
Then I cut a rectangle 7″ wide and 12″ tall (12″ is how tall my front bodice panel is).
From there I measured down 4.5″ which is the distance on my front panel from the top to where I wanted the extra fabric to be for “the girls”.
Ok, now the next part is kind of confusing, and I’m sorry I couldn’t get more pictures. You know how you measured from the bottom of the front panel to your side seam (I got 7″). You have to do the same for the top. I got three for that measurement. So you know that the bottom of your side panel needs to be 12″ and the the top needs to be 3″. You also know at 4.5″ from the top is where you will want to create a little cup so that there is extra fabric. I slanted the top down a little so that it wasn’t right under my arm pit. This is what you should sort of end up with.
So now you should have your front, and front side panel patterns.
The Back
Now it’s time to make the back. I totally forgot to take step by step pictures, but I hope you all will still understand (the piece of paper on the far right is not part of the pattern, only there to show my measurements… ps, nothing like throwing all these numbers out there 😉 ).
For the bust I need 36″ total (so 18″ is half). So far I have 4.5″ from the front panel (I know it says 9″, that’s the total) and 5″ from the side panel which give me 9.5″.
18″-9.5″= 8.5″
So, that means I need 8.5″ for the back around the bust.
Now, to figure out the waist. The total I need is 32.5″ (16.25″ is half). I already have 2.5″ from the front panel and 7″ from the front side panel, giving me 9.5″.
16.25″-9.5″ = 6.75″
So for the bottom I need 6.75″ (I know it says 7″… disregard that).
Use those measurements to create your back panel.
After that you should have three pattern pieces, seen below. You will be cutting out one front panel, two sides and two back.
I included the patterns I made here in PDF form (be sure to choose print actual size) in case you wanted to adjust it for you.
This is how it should go together.
page one page two page three page four
To see how it all goes together click here to get to page two.