How to Sew a Pinafore: Turning an Old Dress Into a DIY Pinafore
In this tutorial, I'll show you how to sew a pinafore dress. I started with a long oversized dress made from jersey material that is pretty thick. So, I decided to turn it into a DIY pinafore. Let's get started.
Tools and materials:
- Oversized dress or jersey type fabric
- Newspaper
- Tape
- Buttons
- Measuring tape
- Pen
- Sewing machine
- Pins
- Matching thread
- Scissors
- Button footer
1. Take your measurements
Start by measuring your waist and the desired length of your DIY pinafore dress.
2. Make the pattern
I didn’t have a piece of paper big enough for the pinafore dress sewing pattern, so I taped some newspaper together.
Now, let’s make the circle skirt part. To make the inner circle, take your waist measurement and divide it by Pi, which is 3.14. Then, measure the number from the corner of your paper, in increments.
For the outer circle, take the desired skirt’s length + the inner circle measurement and measure that number in increments on your pattern paper, too.
Join the dots for both the inner and outer measurements, respectively.
Cut the outer circle as well as the inner circle.
If you don't have an oversized skirt, then fold your fabric in half and place the pattern’s straight side on the fold.
In this case, I’m placing it in the middle, as shown. Trace around the pattern.
Then, cut out the pinafore dress sewing pattern.
3. Assemble the skirt
Place the layers right sides touching and sew one edge of the skirt. Do this with a normal straight stitch, and then a zigzag stitch.
4. Measure more pieces
With the leftover fabric from the dress, measure a rectangle for the center of the dress and another for the waistband of the skirt.
5. Attach the waistband
Pin the waistband of the skirt to the top edge of the skirt, right sides touching, and sew to secure.
Next, fold the upper edge of the waistband downward, pin, and sew to secure.
Sew down the side seam of the skirt, right sides facing.
6. Assemble the center
For the center part of the skirt, cut a rectangle, and sew down three sides, right sides facing. You can make this as big or small as you like.
Then, cut out three long and thin rectangular pieces from each sleeve of the dress (so,six total). Attach the strips together by the short ends to create two long strips.
Hem the strips on both sides with a single fold.
Now, attach the center piece to the center of the skirt, right sides touching. Sew it down to secure.
Also, sew down the two fabric strips to the back of the dress, making sure each end is aligned evenly from one another.
7. Attach the buttons
Lastly, make buttonholes on either end of center piece and attach the buttons to the ends of the straps.
Here’s the buttonhole.
Mark where you want the buttons to be placed and handsew them to the straps.
How to sew a pinafore
Here’s the result! It came out really well and I’m happy with how this DIY pinafore dress turned out! I hope this DIY was useful for you, and that you now know how to make a simple pinafore dress at home.
Thanks for tuning in and let me know what you thought of this sewing project in the comments below.
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