Long Sleeve Toddler Peasant Dress Tutorial (for Prudent Baby)

Thank you to Jacinda and Jamie for requesting this tutorial and for sharing it on their site!  It is a variation of their peasant blouse tutorial. 

With fall coming early to the Pacific Northwest (wait, did summer even arrive?) and winter fast approaching, long sleeves and cozy fabrics are a must!  So, I played around with the pattern until I came up with this:



Here is what you will need for one toddler dress (size 2T):

• 1 yard of fabric 
• 1/4 inch elastic (approximately 26")
• corresponding thread
• safety pin
• pins (optional)

Step 1:  Cut out fabric

Here is the pattern:

(Side note:  If you would like 3/4 length sleeves, cut your sleeve pieces to 10" x 14")

Once cut, your pieces should look like this:





Note that these are still folded

Step 2:  Cut out neckline and armhole

On your dress pieces (leaving them folded in half and stacked on top of each other), cut out an armhole 6" long. I cut a basic J shape.

Cut the neckline as deep as you would like it.  You may prefer to cut the front more than the back.

Fold the two rectangles for the sleeves on the long side, so you will have two 5" x 16" pieces.  Stack them up and place them behind the dress piece with the fold on the inside, like this:

Now cut out the armole and neckline where they overlap the fabric.

Step 3:  Piece together your dress

Unfold all of your pieces.  With right sides facing each other, line up the armhole on one side of the dress with the matching cut on the sleeve piece.  (You can pin this if you like, but I don't bother...I only pin things if I absolutely need to.)  Like this:



Now sew around 1/4" in around the edge of the armhole.  Go back and do a zig-zag stitch at the edge of the fabric to keep the seam intact.



Finished seam



Repeat this on the other side of the dress piece.

 It should look something like this:

Snow angel

Now attach the other side of the dress piece in the same way.

The dress is starting to come together!  Next, the side seams need to be sewn.  Line up the seams at the armpit and then sew along the arm and the side of the dress all at the same time.  Again, secure your seams with a zig zag stitch.

Line up the armpit before you start sewing!

It should look like this.

Step 4:  Finishing touches

Lay your dress out so the top is flat.  It is likely not perfectly straight.

 We want it to be straight...so, fold your dress in half vertically...

 And cut until you have a straight line across the top...

Voila!

Time to heat up that iron.  Fold the top edge over 1/8" and iron, then fold over again about 3/8" giving you a nice clean edge.  Iron down.

Repeat with the sleeves and the bottom hem (although for the bottom hem, you can fold over to 1/4" on the second fold since we are not inserting any elastic here). 

Now sew one line straight across the top of your nicely prepared fold just below the very edge of the neckline.  Go all the way around the edge . 

Now sew a second line around the bottom of your hem (leaving a minumum of 1/4" in between your two rows of stitches).  Don't sew all the way around - be sure to leave about 1/2" gap at the end so that you can feed your elastic through there.  Repeat on both sleeves.

You can hem the dress now as well.

It's time to insert the elastic.  Here are the measurements that worked best for Little Bean:

Neckline: 14.5"

Wrists: 5.5"

Forearm (should you want 3/4 length sleeves): 6.5"

Mark the length of your elastic.  Do not cut it yet (otherwise it will be much more difficult to stitch up when you are done).  Attach a safety pin to one end of your elastic.  Insert it through the hole at the neckline and start to feed it all the way through to the other end.  Once you are satisfied with the length, then stitch it up with a few zig zags to secure it.  Clip off excess.

 Sew the 1/2" hole closed.

Repeat with both sleeves.



You're done!

Here is your final product:

Little Bean running away again

Here's proof she does have a face!

Enjoy!  Please share your comments and photos!