Easy Summer Dresses

This light and breezy sundress sews up like a dream with these Moda floral fabrics found in the June Modern Maker box. It is not too late to sign up to have this shipped to your door ready for the first day of Summer! This free pattern from Jordan Fabrics in sizes 1 through 6 is perfect for little girls to wear on a warm day. I found the pattern easy to adjust to the size needed for this sweet little girl. I opted to use a coordinating fabric for the bodice lining, finishing a size 2 dress using just ⅔ of a yard of the floral fabric. This dress would pair perfectly with the Bucket hat or the Baby bonnet and Bloomers from recent blog projects.

Materials needed:

• ⅔ yard of floral fabric from Modern Maker Membership box

• ¼ yard coordinating fabric for bodice lining 

• Snaps or buttons

• Coordinating Aurifil thread from Chroma membership

To get started, download and print the free pattern. To tailor the pattern to fit, cut out the bodice lining and baste it together at the shoulders and sides to try it on for size. I made an adjustment of sewing the shoulder seam at 1’ instead of the ⅜’ seam suggested. Be sure to transfer any adjustments you made with the initial fitting to the pattern pieces.

When cutting out the pieces you will find the skirt in size 2 calls for two rectangles cut 12x28”. The fabric remaining from these cuts will be enough to cut the front and back pieces. Keep in mind the direction of the fabric when cutting the pattern pieces.

Sew the shoulder seams together on the lining and floral pattern pieces. Press the seams. Align the lining and outer pieces with right sides together matching the shoulder seams and pin in place.

Sew the front center seam around the neck and back down the front. Then sew the armholes. Trim sewn seams with pinking shears to help the seams lay flat.

Open out the side seams and align with the right sides together and pin in place and sew the ⅜” seam. Press the seams.

To make the skirt, sew the two rectangles with right sides together. On the bottom edge use a zigzag stitch or serger to finish the edge. Fold the bottom edge up one inch to create the hem. Sew ⅞” from the bottom with a coordinating thread to finish the hem. Baste the front flaps in place on the bodice, overlap flap about ¾”.

To prepare the top edge of the skirt for gathering, sew ¼” from the edge with a long basting stitch. Leave a long tail of thread to be able to pull the thread to create the gathers in the skirt. It helps to mark the centers with a pin to evenly space the gathers in the skirt as you pin it to the bodice. Work in quadrants as you adjust the skirt.

Pin with right sides together pulling the threads to gather the skirt to fit the bodice.

Take it to the machine and sew the ⅜” seam around the waistline. It is suggested to zigzag stitch or use a serger on these edges to prevent fraying.

Press the entire dress, carefully ironing the gathers at the waistline. The last step is to add the buttons or snaps to the front of the bodice. On this dress I evenly spaced three plastic snaps to blend with the fabric. You will be able to make three dresses with the generous one yard cuts of fabric in the Modern Maker membership boxes with enough leftover to make some cute accessories for the special people in your life.