Man, it’s been a while since I posted any sort of sewing tutorial. With moving, trying to prep for baby #3, and keeping up on the blog, sewing has taken a bit of a back seat.  For Christmas this year I knew I wanted to make Autumn a dress, and decided I would try to get it on the blog. I will also be making Annabelle a shirt, but I don’t know if I will be able to get it up here before baby #3 comes. I have been making different variations of this knot dress since I first started sewing about five years ago. I’m not going to lie, I’m pretty impressed with how my skills have improved. If you want to check out some of my other tutorials. I’ve got an apron , a Little Mermaid inspired dress, and another child’s dress. So, this is a pretty basic pattern, but it turns out super cute!  Read on to make your own DIY Christmas Knot Dress!
First off you will need the pattern. This pattern is a for a size 3T. There are 6 pages to this, and pages 1-4 get taped together so that you can cut the tiers. Then pages 5 and 6 are the bodice. There is no pattern for the straps, you will want cut two rectangles that are 5″ by 18″.
These patterns are all hand drawn, so they aren’t fancy. Please let me know if something seems off though!Â
To start off you will need to cut:
Bodice front and back
Bodice lining front and back
tier one (2)
tier two (2)
tier three (2)
Straps (2)
Fold your strap pieces in half hotdog style (with right sides together), and cut a slant at the end. Then sew around the strap leaving the bottom open to turn out.
Next put your bodice front and back pieces right sides together, and sew the side seams. Do the same for the lining.
The next part may be a bit tricky, but hopefully the picture helps. You are going to make an X with your straps (so they cross in the back. Then take that X and sandwich between the lining and bodice fabric like the picture below.
Sew across the back of the bodice, around the arm holes, and across the front. At this point the only open part should be the bottom. Once again, hopefully this picture makes it a bit clearer.
Now you can flip the bodice so the wrong sides are facing each other and edge stitch.
Next you are going to add some elastic to the back. If you can shirr, that would be a great option too. I’ve tried, but after reading up, Brother machines can be tricky to shirr on. It requires messing with the bobbin tension, which I don’t want to do. I plan on buying a separate bobbin case that I can use just for shirring to see if that helps.
At any rate, since I can’t shirr I simple use elastic. Cut three pieces of elastic to fit between your two straps. Remember, you will be stretching the elastic as you sew, since you want to give the back of the dress a shirred look.
Lift the main bodice up and sew the elastic down on one side on the lining fabric.
Then stretch the elastic and sew in place using a zig-zag stitch. Notice my stitching isn’t super even, but that’s ok.
After, flip the main fabric down, and sew that on the elastic while stretching the elastic out. You will be left with something similar to this.
And you’ve finished the bodice, which I think is the hardest part!
Onto the skirt.
Take your tier pieces and match the same tiers right sides together and sew up the sides. I also added a zig-zag stitch to the side so it acted like I serged it.
After sewing the sides I used an over locking foot to create a rolled hem on the bottom of each tier.
Once you have done that, gather the top of each tier so that it is the same size as the bodice. You will then start with tier one, and sew it onto the bodice (like shown below). After tier one is sewn on, move onto adding tier two, then three.
Finally, add button holes to the front of the dress for the straps to go through. And if you are feeling ambitious, you can sew some decorative buttons down the front.