Home generalSew children's dress - instructions and cut for a summer dress

Sew children's dress - instructions and cut for a summer dress

  • preparation
    • muslin
    • Create pattern yourself
  • Sew children's dress

The summer is finally here and with it the warm sunshine. So that our little dwarfs are dressed appropriately in the heat, today we sew a light and airy summer dress from the new trendy material and my absolute favorite: Muslin! Due to its loose weave, it is permeable to air and therefore perfect for any kind of summer clothing.

Our children's dress has a beautiful neckline, which is crossed with a muslin ribbon, creating a sweet gathering on the front and back. The band is knotted at one of the two shoulders and can be made as long as you like.

preparation

You need this:

  • minute 0, 5 m muslin fabric
  • scissors
  • ruler
  • pen
  • Sewing machine or overlock
  • our kids dress size chart

Difficulty level 1/5
The children's dress is also suitable for beginners

Cost of materials 1/5
For 1 m muslin you pay in about 12 EUR - 18 EUR

Time expenditure 2/5
about 1 - 1.5 h

muslin

One or the other Muslin knows about cloth diapers and cuddly towels for babies. The product can also be found in the kitchen, as an aid in filtering sauces or jellies.

The particularly fine texture Muslin receives by the delicate knot of the front and back. In the chambers between the two layers, small air cushions are created, which make the fabric pleasantly soft and fluffy. These airy features help to make muslin clothing cool and soft on the skin.

In most online shops you will find your own categories with muslin or double gauze. Available in all sorts of colors and patterns, the fabric usually costs between EUR 12 - 18 EUR per meter .

IMPORTANT: Muslin must be washed and dried once before it is sewn, as it will not get its typical wrinkled shape until wet !!

Create pattern yourself

Since our summer dress is cut very straight through the softly falling muslin, you can either cut the fabric without any pattern, or draw a pattern on paper and use as a template.

I show you the length and width of the two pieces of fabric using the sketch below.

Size chart Children's dress

lengthWide chestWide hemWide neckDistance arms
Size 7446 cm34.5 cm53 cm32 cm10.5 cm
Size 80 - 8648 cm36 cm54 cm33 cm11 cm
Size 86 - 9250 cm37 cm55 cm34 cm11 cm
Size 96 - 10453 cm38 cm56.5 cm35 cm12 cm

The seam allowance is already included in all dimensions!

ATTENTION: Before starting to sew the children's clothing, it is essential that the muslin be washed and dried once. Due to the particularly loose weave of the fabric, it contracts after washing and thus gets its typical "crumpled" look. After washing should not be ironed, otherwise it will be smooth again and contracts at the first moisture. So the children's dress could be too small.

Step 1: First, the two cutting parts and distances are drawn with the pen on the muslin fabric. It is up to you whether you first transfer a pattern to paper or draw everything directly with the ruler on the fabric.

Step 2: Then cut out the front and rear parts with the cloth scissors.

Step 3: So that the children's dress on the neck gets a nice gathering, we need a band of fabric, which we will pull in the neck area through the previously sewn hose. For this we cut a muslin piece in the width of about 80 cm and length of 4.5 cm. The ribbon can be cut a little longer, so can be tied to the shoulder of a larger mesh.

Sew children's dress

To sew muslin fabric, there are a few small points to note:

  • When sewing with the straight stitch of the sewing machine, a stitch length of approx. 3-4 is recommended. The longer the stitch, the better it adapts to the weave of the material. For smaller stitch lengths, it may be that the fabric continues to contract around the seam.
  • The best way to handle muslin is with the overlock machine. If suitable yarn is present, the fabric ends can be sewn with it and it is no further Hemming necessary.
  • Even if a hem is sewn, no thinning is necessary. The fabric frayed very little and can be well lined with the straight stitch.

Step 1: For the side seams on our children's dress, we first put the front and back of the dress over each other right to the right and put the two sides together with pins or Wonderclips. We make sure that we omit the armholes - these are not sewn together. The whole can now be sewn off with the zigzag stitch or straight stitch of the sewing machine or the overlock machine.

Step 2: So that the summer dress looks beautiful, the armholes can either be sewn off with the overlock once (as in our case), or we fold about 1.5 cm of the fabric inside (left to left) and quilting with the edged Straight stitch around the armhole. Both variants go fast and look great with muslin fabric.

3rd step: For the tube we need for the neckline we fold the edges about 3 cm inwards and pin the fabric with needles. Here, too, the straight stitch is sewed from one side to the other with a short edge, so that an opening is created at both ends.

4th step: Now is the muslin ribbon for the neckline's turn: For this we put the prepared fabric along the long edge right to right and stuck the entire length. Now we sew both sides together again with the straight stitch or the overlock machine.

Step 5: Turning the ribbon requires a lot of practice! I like to use a pen or, ideally, leftover chopsticks from the last Chinese meal to pull it through. Normally you have to slowly pluck the material at the turning opening with your fingernails.

Step 6: The turned tape is now stitched at both ends again and any fringes removed with the scissors. So we can thread it through the neckline, we attach a safety pin at one end. This we now push slowly through the tube.

Step 7: At the bottom of the dress, we now have the opportunity to sew a hem or attach a ribbon. For the hem, beat the fabric approx. 2.5 cm left to left inwards and once quilt around the lower part of the dress.

At home, I found a ribbon that fits well with our summer dress: I now pin it with needles or Wonderclips and attach it with the straight stitch to the children's dress. Decorative ribbons or bias ribbons are available in all well-stocked shops.

Our summer dress is ready and ready for the first use! As always, we wish you a lot of fun sewing!

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