DIY Gameday Dress (YT Clothing Inspired) : Tutorial

Hola!

So I was on one of my favorite gameday attire websites, Twelve Saturdays, and fell in love with this simple little dress that was perfect for gameday.  I decided I wanted it! But I wasn't willing to pay the $72 that it was when I knew that even I, with what little sewing experience I have, could easily make that on my own.  So, I did.  And it cost me $8.

Here's the dress of interest:

YT Clothing's Megan Dress - photo c/o YT Clothing

Cute, right?!

I decided as I was making it I would document the process and make a tutorial for everyone!

Like I said, I am not very good at sewing, so anyone with minimal sewing machine knowledge can make this dress!

Materials Needed:
- 1 yard of fabric in color of choice for top of dress (gold for me)
- 2 yards of fabric in color of choice for bottom of dress (purple for me)
- Matching thread
- Parchment paper
- Permanent marker
- Straight pins

You can make all pictures larger by clicking on them.

Step 1:
Find a dress in your closet that you absolutely love the fit of.  Roll out the parchment paper.  Fold the dress in half length-wise.  Line up the fold of the dress to the edge of the parchment paper.

Step 2:
Trace your dress onto the parchment paper with a permanent marker leaving about an inch of space between the dress and the marker.  The space is to leave room for a seam allowance.
Make sure to mark a little line where the front neckline is and label it.  This will make sense later.

Step 3:
Cut out the pattern!  Don't cut the line for the front neckline, though!
Label it so that you can keep it for future use.  (I just labeled mine shift dress.)

Step 4:
Take the fabric you are using for the top half of the dress and make a fold.
I wouldn't fold it exactly in half because then you can't get maximum use out of your fabric.
Just lay it flat, take the edge, and fold it over just enough for your pattern to fit where the fabric is doubled.
Place the straight edge of the pattern along the fold of the fabric.
You are only using this fabric for the top piece, so only place the pattern on the bottom of the fabric, making it only overlap the fabric to right under the armpit (see picture to understand what I'm saying).

Where the fabric stops being overlapped by the pattern, draw a little line on the pattern and label it "TOP."  This indicates on the pattern where you stopped cutting the fabric for the top (also shown below).

Step 5:
Pin the pattern to the fabric to keep it in place.
Cut the fabric around the pattern!  Do this twice so that you get a piece for the front of the dress and another piece for the back of the dress.

Step 6:
Cut out the bottom of the dress.  For this step, take your second piece of fabric for the bottom of the dress, make a fold just wide enough for the pattern to fit, and place the straight edge of the pattern along the fold.
Remember how when we did the top, we only put the pattern on the fabric up to a certain point and labeled it?  This is where that will come in handy.
On this second piece of fabric, overlap the pattern from the bottom up to about one inch above the line labeled "TOP."  See photo below for clarification.
This allows a little overlap in the actual cut-out fabric for a seam allowance.  Mark a line where the fabric stops, about one inch about the "TOP" line, and label it "BOTTOM."

*Since we labeled these lines, we won't have to label it again when we use the pattern in the future!*

Step 7:
Pin the pattern to the fabric to keep it in place.
Cut the fabric out around the pattern.
Do this twice!  You will now have a front and back piece in both fabrics.

Step 8:
Cut the neckline.
Remember in the beginning when we marked the front neckline on the pattern?  Well we're going to use that now!
Take one of the pieces of fabric you cut out for the TOP of the dress.  Fold it in half like it was when you were cutting it out.
Put the straight edge of the pattern along the fold and make a small cut on the fold of the fabric where that line is labeled "FRONT NECKLINE."
Remove the pattern and cut a scoop neck line from the cut up to the top of the pattern.
I don't have a picture because I forgot to actually do this step (and I payed for it in the end), but basically cut out a line for the neck that you would like.

Step 9:
Sew together the top and bottom pieces of the dress.
To do this, take a bottom piece of the dress and lay it down right-side-up.
Then, take a top piece of the dress and lay it face-down and upside-down on the bottom piece.*
The straight edges of both the top and bottom piece should be lined up, as shown below.
Pin them together with straight pins.
Sew the pieces together just as they are pinned!

*If you are using a patterned piece, be certain that the patterned side of the fabrics are facing each other!

Do this twice!  Once with the pieces for the front of the dress, and once with the pieces for the back of the dress.

When you are done, lay the whole piece out right-side up.  Basically, flip your top piece up so that the front of both the top and bottom pieces are now showing.  There you go!  There's one side of the dress!

Now, flip it over so that it is upside down.  You will see that where you just sewed there is some extra fabric sticking out.  Just trim it close to the stitch.

Step 10:
Finish the edges.
The necklines, arm holes, and bottom edges of the dress will not be sewn together, so we need to finish the edges and make them look nice.
To do this, fold the edges of the neckline, arm holes, and bottom of the dress to the inside.  Fold it over about 3/8 of an inch.  Pin the folds down, then iron all of the folds to make them stay.  This will make it much easier to sew.

Once all the edges are pinned and ironed, sew them!

I used a zig-zag stitch and just sewed along the frayed edge of the fabric.  This should keep it from unraveling, and the stitch is designed to keep from coming out.

Step 11:
Pin together the front and back pieces.
Take the back piece of the dress and lay it flat, right-side up.
Then, take the front piece of the dress and lay it face-down onto the back piece.  Make sure the edges line up.

Back side of the dress laying flat, face-up

Pin along the shoulders, the armpit, and the sides of the dress.

Front side of the dress laying face-down on top
of the back piece with pins in their respective places

Sew them together!  Just use a zig-zag stitch and sew along the places you pinned together, using the 3/8 inch seam allowance on your machine

Step 12:
Turn the dress right-side out and admire your work!  You just made your very own gameday shift dress!

Here's mine :)  Better photo to come soon.

Tip:

Whatever piece you are sewing, use thread that matches the fabric color of that piece.

I used purple thread for both the purple AND gold fabric.  I thought it'd look cute to have a little purple on the gold.  It was cute, but like I said I'm not that great at sewing.  Not only am I an amateur, but my machine kept messing up when I did the neckline.  So it's really messy and I'm sure I'll rip it out and re-do it.

xoxo,

E