Simple Sun Dress Tutorial

Put your baby down for a nap and impress your Mom, by whipping up a dress in an afternoon (with a wee bit of help from target). 

Buy a shirt and try it on your little one, then mark about an inch below where you'd like the skirt to start. Take it off them and use a rotary cutter to trim it to the appropriate length. you can always save the bottom of the shirt to make pockets on the skirt or a hair bow to match.

 All seams are 1/4 inch unless otherwise stated

  The skirt fabric should be the width of your top doubled, by the desired skirt length + 3 inches. WAIT! don't run screaming, I'll explain.  The top I bought was 11 inches across and I wanted the skirt to hang about 15 inches from the top, so My skirt fabric was 22 inches width and 18 inches in length. (just happened to be the exact size of a fat quarter...lucky me!) You will need two cuts of fabric in these measurements. One for the front and one for the back. 

 Sew the skirt front and back right sides together down the sides creating a tube, finish (serge or zig zag stitch) the raw edges to keep them from fraying.  On the top edge of skirt, finish the raw edge, then fold it down 1.5 inches toward the wrong side of the fabric and press. Sew the fold down ( just like you would to make a casing for elastic, but don't leave an opening).  Backstitch.

 flip the skirt right side out and sew a gathering (longest stitch length and highest tension) stitch just below the "casing" seam. Leave a small space between the beginning and end of your gathering stitch and leave the threads long so you can use them to tighten or loosen your gathers.

Place the skirt on the top,  overlapping it about an inch. Match the side seams on the top and skirt and pin them in place. Now use the long threads on the end of your gathering stitch to tighten (by pulling) or loosen the gathers to fit the top perfectly. 

Pin the skirt in place.

Sew along the original seam (with regular stitch length and tension) attaching the top to the skirt, back stitching at both ends. Use a seam ripper or pull the gathering threads to remove them.

 Finish the raw edge of the bottom of the skirt and fold it up 1 1/2 inches toward the wrong side of the fabric, press and stitch in place to hem. 

Find skirt fabric here

Happy Summer!