Today’s sewing tutorial is easy. Really easy. If you read blogs much you’ve probably seen it before: just sew some cute gathered fabric onto the bottom of a cute shirt to make an even cuter dress. Done. Mind-blowingly simple. But many of the tutorials I’ve seen for this type of dress skip one simple step that really adds to the professional look of a gathered skirt dress.
If you look at commercial dresses that have a gathered skirt attached to a tee or tank top, you’ll always see elastic sewn right into the seam allowance between the skirt and top.
Adding elastic at the waist ensures that the gathered skirt won’t stretch out the top, leaving you with a shapeless dress. Also, it just makes the dress look a bit more professional.
This is a great way to save tops that still fit but have gotten too short, or just an easy method to beef up your little girl’s Sunday wardrobe. Seriously, this will be the easiest dress you’ve ever made.
Here’s what you’ll do. Start with a tee or tank, and cut off enough of the bottom so it just reaches to your girl’s natural waist. Fold a piece of fabric in half (I used just over 1/2 yard of 44 inch wide chambray) and sew down one side to create a skirt.
You’ll want to mark the center front, center back, and each side of both the top and the skirt piece – I just use pins. Marking these locations makes it easier to get your gathers even.
To gather the skirt, sew two rows of basting stitches along the top edge, about 1/2 inch and 3/4 inch away from the edge. Basting stitches are made with a long stitch length and a low stitch tension (upper photo below). Then you can grab the bobbin threads and pull to start gathering up the skirt (lower photo below).
You want to gather the top of the skirt until it is the same size as the bottom of the tee you’re using. You also want to distribute the gathers evenly, so that the marks at the center front, center back, and sides of the skirt match up with the same marks on the shirt (as seen below).
At this point you’ll keep you shirt right side out, but turn the skirt inside out. Slide the shirt inside the skirt (neckline of shirt is down) and match up the bottom of the shirt with the gathered edge of the skirt. Pin together, being sure to match the places you marked before, and evenly distributing the gathers between those spots. Sew to attach skirt to top, using a stitch that has some stretch (narrow zig zag, stretch stitch, serged stitch).
Now, to make the dress look more professional, you’re going to sew some elastic right into the seam you just sewed. Grab a piece of narrow (3/8 inch) elastic that’s about the length of your girl’s waist. Place it on top of the seam allowance and sew around again, giving the elastic a good stretch as you sew. I like to use a wide zig zag or serge stitch here to encase the elastic as I sew.
When you get all the way around, just overlap the elastic a bit and trim off any excess. Here’s what it looks like when you’re done (I used a serger, but again, you could just zig zag the elastic onto the seam allowance):
This will pull the waistline in a little more and ensure that the gathered skirt doesn’t stretch out the waist of the dress over time.
Your final steps are to pull out your gathering stitches and hem the dress. Easy!
PS – I sized down the top from a clearance find at Target, and the skirt is made from this adorable polka chambray from Jo-Ann.
Jacqueline says
You know…I’ve noticed that elastic when taking apart a skirt for refashioning, but never before realized what its exact purpose was. Thank you for educating me!
Sarah Helene says
BRAVO for sewing this FAB dress for your girl: white lacy bodice with elastic waist & tiny red polka dots on dark charcoal skirt! Certainly one of the most FANTASTIC little girl’s dresses I’ve seen. As you stated it’s so simple to sew. To know you purchased the top and cut it off so the bottom reaches only to the waistline and then added the gathered skirt with elastic — VOILA, a lovely dress! CLEVER indeed! Your photo shoot is COOL! Thanks for sharing your tutorial. Sarah in Minneapolis
Lori M. says
Well you have done it again….Cute dress for a little girl,,,,but this grandma is going to make one for herself…As always your tutorials are so great to follow along……..
MJ says
I keep checking out blogs looking for lengths or widths for this. How much wider does the skirt need to be than the waist of the shirt? Just personal preference? Also, could you do any of the gathering with the serger, or, better yet, combine the gathering and the elastic in one step? I think my serger or sewing machine has an elastic foot or a gathering foot, but I’m not sure which machine has which foot! I’m just trying to see how do best do this with what I have. Love the tutorial. Thanks.
Roopini says
Wow! Cute little dress for adorable girl 🙂 Great tutorial! Simple and fun to sew. Pinning 🙂 Thank you for sharing.
Nia says
I love this. Thanks for the tutorial. I am making dresses for charity – this is just awesome!
Rebecca says
Thanks for the super easy tutorial! I used a sewing machine for the first time yesterday and made this dress with mermaid material. My daughter loves it! It seriously took me just about as long to figure out how to put the thread in the machine as it took to make this dress. Great instructions!!!
autumn says
Thanks, Rebecca! I’m glad it worked for you!
Jennifer says
An easier option that I use is stirring elastic. Instead of gathering by hand just sew in two lines of shirring elastic close together. ( hand wind elastic onto bobbin) blast of steam and there it is gathered. Attached bottom to top and your done.
A says
Love the dress. I’m a pretty new sewer and I’m not sure how I could pull out the gathering stitches if I’ve sewn over them to attach the elastic. Please explain a little.
Sherryl says
You only need to remove the basting thread that shows. SHERRYL
Pia andersen says
This is a beautiful dress. .Thank you for the idea and the tutorial.
Linda Sprinkle says
We make T-shirt dresses with elastic, but we let the elastic do the gathering. We just “quarter match” the skirt and the elastic. (using the bottom of the t-shirt as a measure for the length of the elastic) Then we use a zigzag stitch to sew the elastic to the skirt. Sew on the shirt just like you did. This method makes the gathering easy and even. And the dresses will stretch to fit better.
Claire says
I am sewing a jersey skirt onto a school shirt with collar and buttons, I hope I can do the gathering OK. Thanks very much.
Julieanne says
Thanks so much for this, really helpful!
Deborah says
Thank you so much for sharing these ideas. I will use this simple idea to sew dresses for my girls.
Kylee says
So cute!! Just wondering for the pattern, if I were to use eloflex stretch thread for this, would I still need to use a zig zag stitch, or could I use a normal stitch??
Rachel says
I make a lot of dresses for charity and always struggle with the length of the skirt to add onto the top. I buy plain teeshirts, cut them shorter and add a skirt. Is there a rule of thumb for the length of the skirt relative to the length of the top. I do it by eye but sometimes think I don’t get it quite right. Thanks – Rachel
Teona says
Where’s the pattern I can use. I have found a lot of dresses that don’t have a pattern so can I have one.
Bo says
I don’t know if you still need it because it’s been a while, but this is a tutorial rather than a pattern because there aren’t any pieces you’d need to trace, you just get a rectangle that’s big enough to go around the girl’s waist about one and a half times, and a shirt and gather the rectangle until it’s the same size as the shirt.
Hope this helps!