sewlovelylinen: Princess dress tutorial & FREE pattern - part 1

I finally got around to making a princess dress for Alice from some old fabric, curtains and tinsel from Ikea. It's certainly gone down well with Alice and has been much easier to make than expected.

You will need:

Fabric of your choice - I'd say about 1.5 metres
Lining for the bodice
Ribbon
Shiny trim or tinsel (I used both, first finishing off some old trim and then adding gold tinsel from Ikea to the skirt)
Eyelets
The pattern, download here - fits 3 to 4 year old girl, but as it's tied with ribbon at the back, the width is fairly flexible and I hope it will fit for a loooong time! :-)

I gathered all my old fabric and trims that seemed suitable for a princess dress.

Lay the front bodice pattern on the fold and cut out one piece from the lining and one piece from the outer fabric. Ensure you ADD SEAM-ALLOWANCE everywhere!
Also cut out 2 back-pieces from lining and from outer fabric.

Sew the lining together along the sides and the shoulders, leaving the back open. Do the same with the outer fabric.

Pin lining and outer fabric right sides together and sew all along the edge, leaving about 5cm open so you can turn your work inside out afterwards.

This is what it should look like now, trying it on Alice. I originally thought of making a reversible bodice, but gave up on the idea as with an 11 months old baby around, all I do is a bit rushed! ;-)

Handstitch the opening close and now sew a shiny trim along the bottom of the bodice:

The sleeves - gather the sleeves between the markings as follows:

Then ease them into the armholes matching the markings on the pattern:

Pin the cuff (that's the 23x7 cm piece that also needed to be cut out - see pdf pattern) right side onto the end of the sleeve stitch it on, then turn over and do the left side of the sleeve.