The Mouse House Christmas Dress: Sewing Tutorial

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Please bear with me during this sewing tutorial…. I have approximately 45 minutes before my kids wake up from their naps and demand my attention 🙂

Here are some updated pictures of the dress I created as Ainsley’s Christmas dress this year
(inspiration came from a picture I saw as an advertisement for zulily.com) :

Using a measuring tape, measure your child from where you want the skirt to start to where you want the  skirt to end and add 2 inches for hem allowance and seam allowances.  For Ainsley, this measurement was 16 inches long.  (she measured 14 inches and then I added 2 inches to that measurement)

This shows that the crushed taffeta I purchased was 54 inches wide, which is perfect for this project, so keep that in mind when buying your fabric.  Make sure yours is just as wide for a size 2T-3T.  If your child is older, this same width will be just fine, but the skirts won’t be quite as poofy.  If you have a smaller child, you can reduce the width and then adjust the rest of my measurements accordingly!

Measure down 16 inches on the green taffeta.

Cut all the way across your green fabric You need two skirt pieces, so do this twice.

You will have two green skirt pieces, each measuring 16 in by 54 inches.  Put the green pieces aside for now.

Now, you will be cutting the red taffeta, which is the shorter of the two skirts and I made mine asymmetrical.   Again, you will cut out TWO red skirt pieces.  Measure down 14 inches and cut all the way across, just like you did with the green skirt pieces.  You will end up with TWO red skirt pieces, each measuring 14 in by 54 inches.

Now, here is where you are going to create the asymmetrical skirt.  Lay the two red skirts on top of each other so that you can cut them at the same time.

Keep the one end of the skirt pieces 14 inches long.  Move down to the other end of the skirt pieces and measure out 8 inches.  Start cutting towards the 14 inch end, slowly angling as you go.

I found that the middle looked best at 11 inches.  So now, you will have one side of your skirt at 8 inches, the middle of your skirt is about 11 inches, and the other side of your skirt is 14 inches.  Doesn’t need to be exact…these are just the measurements that I used!

Here is a really awful graphic I drew up to give you a better idea of what I mean, pictures are not to scale, haha, I crack myself up:)   The first drawing shows the green skirt.  The second picture shows how you will first cut out your red skirt, and the third picture shows how you will continue to cut your red skirt.

Now, put your two green skirt pieces right side together and stitch up both 16 inch sides.   (crushed taffeta generally doesn’t have a right or wrong side, but I am putting that instruction in here in case you decide to use different fabric) Do the same with the red skirts, stitch up the 14 inch side and then the 8 inch side. Put your skirt pieces aside for now.

It helped me at this point to try them on my “model” to make sure I had the length measurements correct

Out of your leftover green taffeta, cut a strip 5.5 inches wide by 54 inches long

Iron your entire strip in half (on a low setting).  Your sash will now be a little wider than 2.5 inches.

After ironing, sew the raw edges together (BUT LEAVE THE TWO SHORT ENDS OPEN so that you can later turn the entire thing inside out!)  You will end up with a tube.

Turn the tube inside out.  Kind of looks like a snake at this point.

Here is the raw edge you will still have at both openings.

Tuck them inside the tube and iron to set.

Iron the entire tube to set, as well.

After ironing, top stitch the entire sash to finish it off nicely.

I tried the finished sash on my “model”.

Here is the shirt I used for Ainsley’s dress.  Yours doesn’t need to be exact.  It just needs to be pre-washed and dried (to ensure proper fit) and it needs to be the right size for your child.  I liked this particular shirt because of the cute ruffles up top (plus, we already owned it, so it was free!)

Now, you need to cut your shirt about an inch below the point you will want the skirt to be attached.

After you have done your “ruffling stitch”, you need to gently pull the bobbin thread to create an even fluffier ruffle.  Gather the fabric as you go, continuing to pull the bobbin thread.  This is why you can’t do a backstitch!  You need to be able to freely pull the bobbin thread for this to work.  Keep evenly gathering until your skirt opening is about the same size as the shirt opening that you just cut.  Do this for both the red skirt and the green skirt.

Once both skirts have the same size opening as the shirt, layer them together and pin.  Look at the next picture for more detail.

Make sure to do this exactly or you will have an inside out dress!  The shirt goes in first (upside down), then the red and then the green skirts go on the outside (right side up).    You will attach the right sides of the skirt to the right side of the shirt.  So, in the picture above, you see the wrong side of the skirts facing outward.  The right sides of the skirts are touching the shirt.

Confusing, right?  If you understand basic garment construction, you should be fine, but otherwise, this might trip you up.  If you need to contact me at this point, please do!  OR youtube is your friend…. search “attaching skirt to bodice” or “attaching ruffle”.  These should all clarify what I am talking about!  I hope!

AFTER pinning and BEFORE you stitch the layers together, it would be wise to just make sure you pinned it together correctly.  It should look like the above picture once flipped right side out.  If it looks like this, you are good to go!

Stitch the three layers together carefully, making sure you are catching them all.

Once your dress is stitched together, just check everything out to make sure no alterations need to be made before hemming.  You can always adjust your length at this point, if needed.

If everything is okay, go ahead and do a hem around the bottom of each skirt.  I turned my hems under 1/4 inch, ironed, and then turned under another 1/4 inch and ironed again.  Then, pinned and hemmed.

At this point, you are finished OR you can attach the sash to the dress using a few blind stitches, but I chose not to do that because I want it to be removable and adjustable.

Here is what your finished product will look like from behind:

I purchased a sparkly red headband from the craft store and I simply used some of the taffeta scraps to create a rosette and a bow.  I won’t bore you with a rosette tutorial because there are a TON of them in blog land.  So, if you don’t know how to do one, just search “how to make fabric rosettes”.  Super easy and I attached it to the headband using hot glue!

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Hayley

Hayley Crouse is a wife, mother and multifaceted designer. Her love of sewing, crafting, cooking and interior design infuses her daily life and naturally spills over into her online presence. She pushes the envelope of her creativity and hopes that others will be inspired to do the same. She currently authors the Welcome to the Mouse House Blog, is the pattern designer behind Mouse House Creations and is a collaborative designer with Willow & Co. Patterns.

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