Silk Summer Dress - Pattern

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This is my favourite summer dress – very comfortable, easy to sew and one of a kind! :)

Here you can see a few changes I made to the dress.
Picture on the right shows the first version - the front upper edge is straight, while the flower is on the drape below the hip.
Picture on the left is with modifications - I hand stitched the upper front edge (cleavage) to get the shape of a heart and I also attached the flower there.

The dress has 2 layers of fabric – the upper one is about 10 cm shorter than the lower one. It is slightly draped on one side and has a flower attached on it.

Recommended Materials

Elastic materials ONLY: Silk, viscose or any other light, nicely draped fabric, viscose thread, elastic band (3cm wide), scissors, paper to make the pattern, sewing machine

Amount of Fabrics

About 2 meters of fabric (double the length of the dress) 

Making the pattern:

 

Step 1.   To make the pattern for this dress, draw a rectangle on a large piece of paper. Its dimensions should be: width – 1/2 the width of your hips (or your bust depending on which measure is bigger), and the length is the length of your dress (counting from your armpit). Draw a vertical line right in the middle of the rectangle. Also, measure the length from your bust to your waist and from your waist to hips and draw these horizontal lines too as shown on the diagram below (Silk Summer Dress).

Step 2.   After drawing the rectangle, divide the measures for bust, waist and hips with 2, add 2 cm to each dimension and draw each of those measurements into the rectangle, as shown on the diagram. Darts should be placed in the middle of each half of your diagram, and their widest part should be 2cm.

The lower layer of the dress should be about 10cm longer than the upper one. This is your back piece of the dress. (Silk Summer Dress Back)

Step 3.   To make the front piece pattern use the back piece and add the stripe above the bust line as shown in the diagram. It is about 7cm up. (Silk Summer Dress Front)

Step 4.   To complete the pattern curve the side lines from bust line to hip line and make them soft, as the red lines show on the diagram. (Silk Summer Dress Finished Pattern)

Cutting:

Lay your fabric on a flat surface and cut 2 front and 2 back pieces making sure that one set of front and back is 10cm longer than the other. For straps cut 2 stripes of about 5cm wide and 60 cm long.

 

Sewing:

1. Sew the darts of all pieces.
2. Sew the sides of one front and back and then the sides of the other back and front.
3. Lay the 2 layers together, back piece to the other back piece and front to the other front and sew the upper edges together.

4. Set your machine to the smallest zigzag stitch and do the lower edges to make them wavy.
5. Sew elastic band onto the upper edge.
6. Fold the straps in half along the long sides, seam down and reverse them onto the right side. Sew them to the dress fitting to your figure.
7. Drape one side of the upper layer, sew it by hand and attach a flower, made from the leftovers of the same material.