Then sew right along the edge of the fabric. If you pin, you’re going to want to pull the pins as you go instead of sewing over them.
When you open it up, you get a pretty pintuck.
To do the top of the dress, I used a basic t-shirt pattern (if you don’t know how to make one, check out my tutorial here – if you read all the way through, there’s a free size 2-4 t-shirt pattern too)
The trick to pintucking this top was to sew all the pintucks first on a rectangular piece of fabric, then center the t-shirt pattern on it and cut out the t-shirt.
You’ll notice the squares above have one point cut off. I used the 45 degree line on my cutting board and cut so that the new edge was about 1 1/2 inches wide. For the final skirt, which was about a size 2T, I used 6×6 inch squares and 9×9 inch squares. The ones pictured above are actually the 4 inch squares that I didn’t end up using since I decided 3 layers would be too heavy.
To sew together, you lay them out like this:
Continue to sew squares together until your skirt width around the top is the same as the circumference of your top. Sew the last two sides together so you have a circle formed out of squares. Then flip it inside out and attach it to your top the same way you would attach any skirt to a bodice.
LeighAnn
This is great! What kind of fabric did you use for this dress and how much?
Melissa
Leigh Ann – thanks! I used about 2 yards of cotton interlock knit.
Joana
Adorable—and brilliant too! Now if only I had a little granddaughter…..someday.
Mama Lusco
Thanks for the tutorial. I haven’t sewn pintucks yet but they don’t look so scary now 🙂 I pinned this @Mama Lusco. Thank you!
Sew Country Chick
Saw your cute project at Run & Play. I hope you stop by and link up Saturday at my sewing only link up.
http://www.sewcountrychick.com
Jen
What a doll! Adorable! I’d be absolutely delighted if you’d come and share this (and any other posts you’d like to show off) at the Head to Head Showdown link party. It’s going on right now at http://www.icantstopcrafting.blogspot.com I hope to see you there! ~Jen
Brittany
Wow! This is simply adorable! Another reason I need to re-learn my sewing machine. Love the green too!
Brittany (www.tiptopnest.com)
Jill @ KitchenFunWithMy3Sons.com
We are hosting our first Kitchen Fun and Crafty link party next Friday (the 10th) and would love for you to share this! Feel free to stop by and grab a party button! http://kitchenfunwithmy3sons.blogspot.com/
Misa
This is the most adorable little dress ever!!!! Love it.