May 13, 2014

DIY peasant maxi wrap dress

IMG_2713c peasant dress IMG_2908c IMG_2884c IMG_2880c IMG_2721c IMG_2711c Another week and another project sewn challenge (vote if you want!)...this time...my favorite. Floral! Since I've been born, floral is my go to favorite pattern. When I stumbled across this minty pink fabric at the thrift store, I knew I had to make it into something very feminine. Therefore, a peasant maxi dress was made! With a few scraps left. And I'm in love with it. I made this dress from draping on my dressform with a little mixture of a tutorial I did a few weeks back tutorial here.
Supplies:
3-4 yards flowy fabric (polyester, cotton/poly, knit)
fitted shirt you can trace onto the fabric with
scissors
thread
measuring tape
sewing machine
pins

Instructions:
1. Take an fitted top and trace it to fabric  (with added seam allowance), but make sure to extend the width of the top 5+ inches (only need to trace till little below natural waist). Cut the collar front side to start at the neck to the side seam on other side. It will give you an extra inch to fold under the collar and iron. Gather the other front piece angled toward the point (noth just gathered at the bottom, it will be gathered mostly near the point near the opposite side seam). There may be extra on the bottom after you trim, you can cut that off later. Repeat with the other side.
2. Take the fitted top and lay down on fabric, then trace (with added seam allowance) and cut out. For a little more comfort, I made the bottom of the back top piece to have a few extra inches and instead of adding darts I gathered it.
*OPTIONAL: if you want to insert the little contrasting pieces in the back, then jump down to bottom picture...
3. Sew the front pieces to the back pieces RST.
4. Sew in the collar in the back with help from this tutorial (here), but just make a collar for the back collar, then connect the 1" front collar (that is folded under) and connect it with the back piece after you sew it to the back collar.
5. Make the sleeves by tracing it from the shirt you are using, but make it much much wider, and taper outwards. The top of the sleeve can be basically the same size as a normal sleeve, but make it an extra 5 to 7 inches wider at the bottom. I made mine 3/4 sleeve you can do longer or something else. Sew the sleeve together into a tube RST and fold the bottom a half inch up, leaving a hole and enough room to slip in some elastic. Sew the elastic ends together and scrunchy sleeves!
6. Sew the sleeves into the top, pinning the sleeves into the arm holes of the top RST.
7. To make the bottom sew your remaining fabric together to be the length you want and at least 1.5x to 2X your width, the more width it has the more gathered it will look. Sew up the side edges 1" and the bottom 1/2". Gather it to be the same width as your wrap top when opened completely.
8. Sew the top half together and the skirt together, RST.
9. Add buttons/button holes where the wrap edges meet. (or you can do it this way) peasantpsdc   *optional: After cutting out the back piece to the top, cut out an inch or inch and a half from the sides, then take those pieces and cut use them to trace and cut out from a contrasting fabric. But make sure to add extra seam allowance since you will have to sew them back on to the top. Sew the piece RST to the back piece on the sides. Iron. peasant2

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for the tutorial. I love the dress, just what I was looking for.

    ReplyDelete