Yes, you can make your first ever dress! Karoline Dahrling-Hughes' easy jersey dress is a great first dressmaking project as you don't need to worry about messing around with pattern cutting – you can make it using your favourite top as a size guide.
We're going to talk you through how to make a dress for beginners, every step of the way. We've included some information on how long it will take to sew a dress as well as some fabric tips to help you feel fully comfortable with this project.
We've also created a handy YouTube video to help you learn how to sew a dress! You can watch our video below.
Ready? Let's sew a dress together!
How long does it take to sew a dress?
Our how to sew a dress pattern takes one day to sew. This is because it requires no pattern cutting and so taking measurements is not needed. These steps often take a whole day to organise but the tracing method we've used is much speedier!
Every dressmaking pattern takes a different amount of time and it all depends on the complexity of the pattern. For example, if your dress includes ruffles or complex stitching like french seams, it will take much longer to sew.
As a general rule (if you're using a pattern) it roughly takes three days to sew a dress.
Tips for sewing with Jersey fabric
Our how to make a dress tutorial uses jersey fabric. Jersey fabric is a brilliant, easy-sew material and is ideal for beginners.
To help you get to grips with the material, we created a how to sew jersey fabric tutorial. It includes advice on calculating stretch, what sewing machine settings you need and much more.
Feeling inspired to start sewing?
Check out Simply Sewing Magazine! It's packed with beautiful sewing patterns to make and helpful guides from sewing experts! Check out the latest issues or subscribe today.
How to sew a dress
Notes
To make this project simple we traced directly onto the fabric so there is no paper pattern to draw, cut and trace.
We traced directly on the fabric and cut it out.
If you are unsure whether the dress will fit, then cut it with extra seam allowance all the way around so you can adjust it if necessary.
A dress up to a UK size 16 will fit on a fabric width of 140cm (45in) for larger sizes. For a longer-length dress you may need to purchase wider fabric or increase the amount needed to 2m (2¼yd).
Use a 1cm (3⁄8in) seam allowance throughout. If you're new to sewing, read our sewing for beginners guide to learn all the basic stitches
