This is a super easy summer dress with pockets! It fits a 3x size and can easily be made in a day. You need 4 yards and 18 inches of fabric or one queen size flat sheet. You don’t need any buttons, zippers, elastic, or special sewing feet. Your standard sewing foot will do for this project.
Chest: 52 inches
Waist: 56 inches
Hips: 57 up to 63 inches
Shoulder to bottom of dress on front: 41 inches
Shoulder to bottom of dress on back: 43 inches
This dress is more fitted at the top and flows down in complete panels all the way down, so there’s no waistline. Because the dress flares so much at the bottom, if you’re wider at the bottom it is more forgiving. Please measure yourself; there is not a lot of room to let out the top but if your a little smaller you can bring the dress in so it fits you. At this time the dress only comes in one size, 3x.
If you have any questions you can send me a message over at my Etsy page. Here is a link to the pattern at my ETSY store.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/819187815/easy-3x-summer-dress-with-pockets
YOU WILL NEED
4 Yards and 18 inches of fabric 44 inches wide. Fold in half longways so it’s 22 inches wide. I have made this dress out of all kinds of fabric. You can also use a Queen size flat sheet. So use what you like. I did use all cotton for the instructions. This dress is not lined so make sure you pick a fabric that you can’t see through. I like to make the front and side out of different colored fabrics, making the dress look more fitted.
7 Yards of Double-fold Bias tape (3 packs). You can skip this if you just want to roll the hem over like the dress below.
The pattern is available at my Etsy store.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/819187815/easy-3x-summer-dress-with-pockets
First, you will need to print out the pattern. The pattern has 4 dress sections and pockets.
Cut out the pattern and tape it together, overlapping the tabs.
Use the map as a guide to help put the pattern together.
You will have a FRONT of the dress that will need 1 yard and 9 inches cut on the fold. Then FRONT SIDE you need 1 yard. BACK you will need 1 yard 9 inches cut on the fold. BACK SIDE needs 1 yard.
Fold your fabric long ways, right sides together, making the fabric 22 inches wide and place FRONT pattern and your POCKET. You will cut 2 pockets out of the pattern and the other 2 out of your other fabric. This pattern has a lot of fabric waste so if you’re thoughtful when you place the pocket you can save some of it for other projects.
MAKE SURE TO MARK YOUR POCKET.
MAKE SURE TO MARK YOUR POCKET. Once you cut this out you will want to transfer you pocket mark to the right side of your fabric.
Do the same thing for the BACK, cut on fold. I just put the BACK right above the FRONT. Draw around the BACK pattern and cut out both FRONT and BACK and POCKET.
So out of the first fabric we have the FRONT and BACK and one set of POCKET. This is the time you want to transfer your pocket mark to the right side of your fabric.
Next, we cut out the FRONT SIDE and BACK SIDE pattern. These will be cut out of our 2nd fabric, folded over longways to make the width 22 inches.
Layout the FRONT SIDE. I put mine right in the middle, making sure that it is straight to the dot pattern. MARK THE POCKET.
Layout the BACK SIDE pattern and also cut out another POCKET.
Cut it out and move your POCKET mark to the right side of the fabric.
Theses are the pieces of the dress.
And now for the pockets. POCKETS are the most important thing in any dress. So we start by putting them on.
Lay the FRONT out flat with the right side up. Place the POCKET (right sides together) with the flat top of the pocket on the pocket mark.
Pin your POCKETS down.
Layout the FRONT SIDE with the right side up. Place the POCKET on top Flat side on the pocket line and right sides together. When you pin the POCKET on you will need to curve the pocket around the dress while you pin it down.
Now sew on all the POCKETS with a 1/4 inch straight stitch and then go back over the edge with a wide zig-zag.
Next we will iron the POCKET flat and then open it and iron flat.
Do this to all the pockets. Once you have all of your pockets pressed flat, layout the FRONT with the POCKETS out flat.
Line the POCKETS up at the flat part of the top POCKET and pin the POCKET in place.
Then pin down to the bottom of the dress. Don’t worry if the dress doesn’t match at the bottom. We will fix that later.
Start at the top of the POCKET and pin all the way up to the top of the dress, curving around the FRONT SIDE pinning it around to the top. Don’t worry if the top doesn’t match we will fix that later.
This is what it should look like. Now, sew a 1/4 inch seam with a straight stitch all the way down and around the POCKET. When you get to the bottom of POCKET you want to backstitch up about 2 inches. This will help keep things in your POCKET.
Back stitch about 2 inches at the bottom of the POCKET.
Next line up the other side and sew it with a 1/4 inch seam.
Now layout the BACK, right side up and place the BACK SIDE on top, right sides together.
Overlap the point at the top of the dress by 1/4 inch and start pinning down, curving around till you get to the bottom. Once it’s pinned down you can sew it with a 1/4 inch seam. When you get down to the bottom don’t worry if the bottom doesn’t match up, we will fix that later.
Do the same thing for the other BACK SIDE.
Now lay out the FRONT and BACK, right sides together.
Pin the sides and shoulders. Then sew down both sides and sew the shoulders, all with that same 1/4 inch seam.
Now, lets deal with any unevenness at the bottom of the skirt.
Fold over the dress where the fabrics do not match up. Trim the fabric to match the shorter fabric.
Here comes the fun part: Fitting. Put the dress on inside out, and see where you need to pinch it in some. Any place you want to bring in the dress, just pinch the fabric and put a pin in longways to hold it in place. You may also need to put a dart into the bust depending on the fit. When you have it where you want it go ahead and take the dress off and sew a stitch to hold it in place. Take your time it’s worth the effort.
I have made the back of the dress several inches longer than the front. I don’t like it when a dress rides up when you bend over. If you want the dress to be even around the bottom, lay the dress out and use the front of the dress as a guide to cut the back. Or you can move the hemline anywhere you want. It is your summer dress, after all.
When you’re happy with your fit, it’s time to finish the dress. Go back over all of your seams with a wide zig-zag stitch. Now, you can choose to do a simple rollover hem or you can use bias tape to finish off the edge.
If you plan of doing a rolled hem, go ahead. I don’t have any instructions for that. But I do have instructions for the Bias tape.
Open the bias tape with the wide side edge along the backside of the fabric. Start on the back of the skirt. Fold over about half an inch at the start of the tape and pin down the fold. You can pin down all the bias tape or just line it up to the edge as you sew. I like to line it up as I go along. Using a standard stitch to stitch in the ditch.
When you get to the end, fold the tape back over about a half-inch and sew it down. Backstitch so you can lay the next bias tape down. You do not need to fold over the start of the next tape. Also, do this to complete the circle.
Go ahead and do the same thing to the arms and neck. When you start the arm you want to start the bias tape at the bottom of the hole where the armpit is. You also want to start the neck at the back and center so it looks nice in the front.
Now that you have the bias tape sewn down, you will want to go along the edge and snip the fabric around the bias tape. This will allow the bias tape to lay flat. Trim any of the overlaps.
Once you have it all snipped, you will want to fold over the bias tape.
Pin down and sew along the edge.
And that’s it.
I hope you liked it. I hope you enjoy the pattern you can make a fun summer dress out of. I am working on making more sizes so please check my Etsy store.