Simple Black Baby Dress

I had some extra fabric laying around from a skirt I made, so I wanted to try to make something for my daughter, Gia, with it. I had a little less than a yard to work with, and no pattern. I ended up using a dress that she has to get the shape I wanted.

First, I laid the fabric down (folded in half) and cut out the new dress (allowing a little extra around the edges for seams.) Once you cut all the way around the dress, you should have two pieces. Keep these two together. Do this twice so that you have 4 pieces, keeping the sets together.. From there, fold each set in half to make sure the edges meet up. If there is more fabric on one side,trim it to match up.

Now that you have two sets (dress A -top dress and dress B-liner), pin both dresses where the fabric is right sides together. Mark where the armhole starts, so that when you start to sew, you don't close the armholes.

Now, we sew! I started at the armhole line and sewed down to the bottom. Do this for each side on each dress. You will now have two dresses. I also zigzag stiched the edges where I just sewed to prevent fraying.


The next step is to create your bottom hem on each dress.Fold the hem up once, then fold that fold over again and pin. Do this all the way around both dresses. Once you have them pined, sew each hem.

Once I had two dresses with a hemmed bottom, I put dress B inside dress A.

• You want dress B's seams to be on the outside when putting it into dress A. That way when you put the dress on your daughter, the seam will be in between the dresses, and not up against the skin.

Pin the dresses together at the shoulders. This is where we will sew next. Sew across each side, with all 4 pieces together. Zigzag stitch here too.

Once you have the shoulders sewn, take the top layer and turn the entire dress inside out. Make sure you have 3 pieces in one had and one piece in the other when turning it inside out.

(You will not be turning it inside out from the middle)

From there, you will need to sew a new hem for the neck the same way as you did the bottom. Take the front two pieces fold over twice and pin, moving your way around the neck hem. Once you have the neck sewn, you will need to make an opening at the top of the back neckline.; this will allow the head to slip through the neck without being tight.

I cut out a small rectangle for mine, then sewed the edges of this. I also added a buttonhole on one side, and button on the other.

This was the final dress:
I did not do anything with my armholes, because i am going to sew little sleeves onto them.
But if you would like a tank dress, all you have to do is double fold, pin and sew your arm holes the same way you did the neck hem.
I also did not like how wide the bottom of the dress was, so I took the top layer in a little.
I added the sleevs, and a ruffle in the middle of the dress to end up with this: Excuse the lighting on this picture.

I will make this dress again, but with better material, and more details on how to make it. Maybe I can get the little one to pose with it on soon!

I hope you enjoyed this!

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