Romantic Slip Dress From Scratch: Sewing DIY
Today, I’m going to take you through the process of creating a romantic, vintage-style white slip dress using the PDF pattern linked below. Despite a few hiccups along the way, I really love how this dress turned out, and I’m excited to share this slip dress tutorial with you.
Tools and materials:
- 1 meter silk fabric
- Pattern
- Scissors
- Pins
- Pinking shears (optional)
- Zipper
- Sewing machine
Make adjustments
I made several adjustments to the pattern, which can be seen in the video from 1:16-3:57.
Cut
I laid out my pattern pieces on the folded fabric and traced around them with a water-soluble pen. Once everything was traced out, I pinned the two layers of fabric together and cut everything out.
Cut a facing
For instructions on how to create the facing patterns, see 4:29-4:48 in the video.
Pin and sew
To begin construction, I placed the back skirt pieces and back top pieces right sides together and pinned and sewed the center seam, leaving a ½-inch seam allowance.
I also zigzag stitched the raw edges of the seam and cut off any extra seam allowance.
Sew
Next, I placed the back top piece and skirt piece right sides together and sewed.
Gather
To gather the bottom edge of the top front pieces, I sewed two rows of basting stitches along the bottom edges.
Then I gently pulled on the threads to gather the fabric. I tried to concentrate most of the ruffles around where the darts used to be.
Mark
To make the center point of the skirt nice and clean, I marked the seam allowance on both the skirt and the top pieces.
Pin and sew
I aligned the center points of the top pieces and skirt piece and pinned them, right sides together.
Then I sewed them down. I suggest sewing between the two lines of basting stitches.
Sew
I sewed the seam in the center front, leaving about 2 inches unsewn at the top.
Top-stitch
I sewed a top stitch along the seams connecting the top and bottom of the dress, to make everything lie flat.
Pin and sew
I laid the front and back pieces right sides together, and pinned and sewed both side seams.
Add a zipper
I hadn’t planned on adding a zipper, but it turned out I couldn’t get the dress on without one, once I sized the pattern down. I opened one side seam, and pinned one side of the zipper on, right sides together with the fabric, and sewed it down as close to the zipper teeth as possible. Then I did the same for the other side.
TIP
If you want to skip the zipper, I suggest you size your pattern up and add some elastic to the back.
Cut straps
I cut two 1-inch wide strips of fabric, each about 20 inches long.
Fold and sew
I folded them into fourths by folding each edge into the center and then folding the strip in half lengthwise. I ironed down the folds to hold them in place and sewed them down along the open edge.
Sew
I placed the facing pieces right sides together and sewed them together along the side that wouldn’t have the zipper.
Pin and sew
I pinned the straps to the top of the dress.
Then I pinned the facing on top, and sewed everything together, excluding the center-front seam.
Understitch
To keep the facing from rolling, I understitched it by folding all the raw edges toward the facing, and sewing on top of it.
Add bias tape
This step is optional, but because the fabric frays so much, I wanted to add some bias tape along the zipper which I did by cutting two rectangles of fabric, and sewing them along the zipper seams.
Step: Fold, pin, and sew
I folded the facing over the zipper, pinned it in place, and sewed it down.
Then I folded the dress in half at the center seam, right sides together, folded the facing down, pinned the seam, and sewed it all together.
Attach straps
I seam-ripped a tiny hole on the back edge where I wanted to place my straps. I passed the strap through the hole and sewed it down.
Hem
Finally, I hemmed the bottom of the dress.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial on how to sew a slip dress. If you use this pattern to make a slip dress of your own, I would love to see the results.
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