Cut And Sew Tutorial

How To Sew Your First Dress: A Step-by-Step Tutorial

If you're just getting started with sewing, you might think that a dress is way out of your league. But that's not necessarily so. A dress is actually a great beginner project, as long as you choose a simple style and easy-to-work-with fabric (more on that in a minute!).

As with any larger project, the key to making it manageable is to break it down into bite-size pieces or, in the case of a dress, components. Each component requires a series of steps to complete. Once you knock off one component, you're ready to move on to the next. And so on ... until, before you know it, you've got yourself a custom-fit, seriously cute new dress!

1. Select Your Pattern and Fabric

For this tutorial, I'm making a simple shift dress — an awesome choice for beginners. Get a pattern you like online or at your local sewing store.

As for fabric, your pattern will give you a list of suggestions. Stick to it! These fabrics will have properties (like weight, stress and drape) that will work best with the design.

2. Prep Your Pattern

Open your pattern and identify all the pieces you'll be using. For a simple shift dress, that might include the dress front, dress back, front and back neck facings and armhole facings or sleeves.

Give the tissue-paper pattern pieces a quick dry pressing to remove all the wrinkles and make sure they lay flat on your fabric, then neatly set them aside.

3. Prep and Cut Your Fabric

Prep the Fabric

Press your fabric to remove any wrinkles, then lay it out on your work space, following the pattern instructions. Keep in mind, you may need to fold the fabric in half.

Place the Pattern Pieces

Place the pattern pieces on the fabric, per the pattern instructions. Always remember to line up the pieces along the grain line of the fabric.

Don't forget about directionality: If your fabric has a directional print, such as flowers with stems, make sure to lay out the pieces so that all the flowers are facing the same direction.

Pin the pieces to your fabric, then cut!

Your pattern may also include facings. Facing is applied to the garment's inside edge to add strength and give the piece a polished look. A sleeveless dress likely includes facings for the neck and armholes, either all in one piece or separate pieces for the front and back.

Facings typically require interfacing, a material used to give additional strength, support or shape to the garment. It's not intended to be visible in the finished piece but is either sewn or fused to the wrong side of a fabric. Your pattern instructions will indicate which pieces need to be interfaced. You can cut out the interfacing separately, and then fuse or sew it onto the facing pieces, or you can do it before the cutting-out process (know as block fusing)

In the photo above, I used a small piece of the dress fabric, then cut a similar sized piece of interfacing, which I then fused to the wrong side of the fabric. I then folded the now-interfaced dress fabric in half and cut the facing pieces.

Again, always remember to line up the pieces along the grain line, watching for pieces cut on the fold as indicated on the pattern pieces.

4. Mark and Sew Darts

Your pattern will likely have a few darts. Mine only has bust darts to provide some shaping. Transfer the pattern markings to your cut-out fabric. Darts are indicated by dots in a long triangular shape. Then fold and stitch from the fabric edge to the point. Press the fold downward.

5. Sew the Back Zipper

Pro tip: If your dress includes a back zipper, sew it on now, before the front and back of your dress are sewn together. It's easier!

You can put in a zipper in a variety of ways. In the example above, I used a lapped zipper application, which can be done by hand or machine, and discreetly hides it from view under a flap.