![]() I prefer my dresses to have elastic right at my natural waist however, depending on your body type, you may prefer a higher or a lower waistline. That completes the very basic dress construction! Now we need to add some elastic to define the waist. Sew the sides seams, starting under the sleeve and continuing all the way to the bottom of the dress. Take your two maxi dress pattern pieces and lay one on top of the other, with right sides together. You’ll also want to cut a casing piece that’s approximately 1.25 inches high and 50 inches wide (stretch goes along the width). From this you’ll want to cut a neckbinding piece that’s approximately 1.75 inches high and 28 inches wide (stretch goes along the width). You’ll have some extra fabric left below the dress pieces. On this side, cut the neckline lower, tracing the front neckline of your t-shirt. Repeat on the other side with a mirror image. The dress pieces should be about 60 inches long from the top of the shoulder to the hem (or a bit longer if you’re really tall – I’m 5’3″ and I cut at least 5 inches off the bottom before hemming). You’ll trace/pin a straight side seam all the way down the side of the dress. Remember, you can always take something in, but once it’s cut you can’t take it out!Ĭurve in right below the sleeve, and then immediately angle out as shown below. Usually when tracing a pattern I add 1/2 an inch seam allowance for this dress I added quite a bit more room (1-2 inches) to get a relaxed fit. You’ll notice that we aren’t treating the sleeves as a separate piece just trace all the way around the shirt and sleeve together as you see below. You do not need to add seam allowance along the neckline, but you do need to add seam allowance everywhere else. Use pins to “trace” around the shirt, as shown below. Fold your t-shirt in half and line it up along one of the folded edges of the fabric. (Please note that this method of making a maxi dress will not work for sizes above an XL.) To get the loose fit you see here, you need to use a t-shirt that fits well without being tight. If you use a t-shirt that has to stretch to fit you, your finished maxi dress will be tight. To make this dress using a t-shirt instead of my pattern, find a tee that fits close to your body without being so tight it stretches when you put it on. If you’re a different size, don’t worry! I’ll show you how to make this dress using a t-shirt you own. The illustration below shows how the pieces will be cut for this dress if you use the Easy Tee pattern. NOTE: If you wear a womens size L (approx 38 in bust), you can print out my Easy Tee pattern and use it to make this dress. Please note that this method of cutting out a maxi dress will not work with sizes above an XL. Fold the fabric in from each side so that the selvedge edges meet in the middle (see photo below). Then lay the fabric out on a flat surface and smooth it out. Wash and dry your fabric before you begin. You’ll also need a yard of 1/2 inch elastic. You will need 2 yards of 60 inch wide knit (stretchy) fabric. You’re basically going to draw around a t-shirt that fits you well to create your own pattern for these pieces. This maxi dress just has two main pattern pieces: a front and a back. You don’t need a sewing pattern, because you’ll make your own simple pattern using a t-shirt as a guide. It takes 2 yards of knit fabric and one yard of elastic, so you’ll be able to make it for $50 or $60 less than the Gap version. Plus in the reviews people complained that the fabric was very thin, which means it wouldn’t hide my muffin top very well. It was so cute and looked perfectly comfortable and cool for summer. But it was $75, which is a little pricey, and I could tell from the photo that the gathered waistline would hit very low on me which just looks terrible. I got the idea for this easy to sew maxi dress when I saw the dress below (from The Gap years ago). I’ve included new photos and more detailed instructions. The original tutorial used my Easy Tee pattern as a base, but I decided to revisit it today and show you how to make this simple maxi dress without a pattern. It’s the simplest way I could come up with to sew up a maxi dress that has sleeves. ***Five years ago I shared a tutorial for a SUPER EASY maxi dress. In today’s post: Learn how to make a super easy maxi dress without a pattern!
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