Put most of the oval in the front, with about 1/3 in the back. Draw an oval with that circumference and lay it on the dress top. The edge of the neck opening will not be hemmed, so you need the opening to be that size or a little larger. How big should the neck opening be, and how long should the front slit be? Measure around your neck. Sew the shoulder seams together, putting the clips of the neck edges together. Fourth picture: Cut the material out in the same arc shape as the pattern.Īssemble from the top down, putting finishing touches on the neck and sleeves before moving down to the sides and gores. Pencil in a straight line from the central point to each of the outer points.
Pin the gores on as shown, making sure the full pie-piece gore is centered and the other two are equidistant from the center of the material. Third picture: The last part of the sheet will be folded in half perpendicular to the original fold, so the top hem and bottom hem of the sheet are together. Second picture: Take one, and fold it in half in the same orientation as the first fold. You now have two layers of sheet that are cut apart by the first two pattern pieces. Cut a slit up the center with the length that you have calculated for waist to bottom. Cut a tiny notch at the edge of the neck hole, but leave that uncut. Cut around the sleeve and down the side, then cut straight down along the grain to the correct length.
Cut the material this way: Cut the shoulder, leaving the neck opening uncut. Pin the sleeve along the fold at the bottom of the sheet. Measure from the high point of the shoulder to the length of the dress, and make a small mark on the sheet. Place the neck of the blouse at the top of the sheet, not over the hem. The middle of the sheet is the fold.įirst picture: Pin one front and one sleeve along the fold.
Sweep the floor where you'll be laying all the material.įold the sheet in half so that the top and bottom hems of the sheet are on the top and bottom.
Make sure that the length of the sleeve plus the length of the dress is going to fit on the sheet. The straight center edge will be the side seam, while the bias edge will be sewn to the front or back of the dress. Using the same technique with the measuring tape, draw a half-arc. You will adjust this width based on the material later. Hold the tip of the measuring tape still, and draw an arc at the calculated distance. I had to tape pieces of paper together to make it possible to draw that large shape. (Mine was 101 cm.) Picture 3: You will need a pie-shaped piece of that distance, and two half-pie-shaped pieces. Measure the distance from your waist over your hip to the floor. The skirt should flare from the waist to the floor. My picture shows 150 cm, but I added 2 more after that. I'm 166 cm tall, and my length was 152 cm. Add 2 cm for the shoulder seam allowance plus however much you want for the hem. How long should the pattern be? Measure from the top of your shoulder to the floor over your breasts. Adjust the cuff of the sleeve pattern to half of that dimension, with the fold edge being straight. If the sleeve edge is not straight, you can outline it as is, but then we're going to measure the size of your hand to make sure it will fit through the sleeve, and make the pattern wearable. Picture 2: Place the sleeve of your blouse on the edge of a large piece of paper, so the top of the sleeve is on the edge. My blouse was a little smaller than hip dimension plus seam allowances, but the gore insert will take care of the difference. The width at the hip should be wide enough for your actual hip measurement. The length was longer than my paper, so I wrote the length on the paper. Remove the blouse, and pencil in the shape of the sleeve edge, and the opening at the front of the neck. Outline the shoulder seam from the edge of the neck to the top of the arm, then from the bottom of the arm down the side to the bottom. Picture 1: Place your blouse on the edge of a large piece of paper, with the buttons centered over the edge. I decided to use a blouse to give me dimensions for the shoulders, neck opening and side seams.