Womens Tiered Gathered Dress

Sew a short ruffled dress for ladies

Hey y’all, it’s the last of my Esma Top pattern hacking series this month and today I’m showing you how to take the pattern and turn it into the gathered dress with tiers. This is a loose and breezy style perfect for warm weather, or over some tights and under a cardigan when the weather cools.

And it’s pretty easy to sew! I used a linen/rayon blend fabric to make mine. The rayon adds drape to the linen and makes it a lighter weight, so I love how this dress flows. It’s also pretty cute with my DIY Espadrilles if I do say so myself.

Like I said last week, 2020 has been all about the house dress kind of vibes for me. This dress feels like wearing pajamas but making it cute.

Want to make your own gathered dress? You’ll need:

• The Esma Top pattern, available in my shop
• About another 1 1/2 – 2 yards of fabric, depending on what size you’re sewing and how long you want your skirt to be. This is totally customizable!

To make yours, follow the instructions in the gathered dress video below, which you can also watch on YouTube here if it won’t load below for some reason.

Some other helpful links to sew this:

• This post shows more about gathering and making ruffles
• This post shows how to beautifully finish the neckline
• These circle flounces are an alternate to the ruffled sleeves
• If you cut side seams in your skirt top tier, you can add pockets
• You could add lace between the tiers like I did on this dress.

I haven’t decided which of these pattern hacks is my favorite one, but this dress is definitely going to get worn a lot, and not just by my dress form.

You can check out all my other Esma hacks below.

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