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free sewing patterns sewing sewing for kids
March 31, 2016

the “hello spring” girls’ dress | free pattern in size 4/5

Hey all, I have a new free pattern for you today! Last spring the free flutter sleeve dress and top pattern was so popular, I decided to draft up a new girl’s dress pattern for this year: the hello spring dress & top. This pattern is easy to sew up using a knit fabric on top and knit or woven on the bottom. The free pattern comes in girl’s size 4/5, or XS.

Cute girls' dress pattern and sewing tutorial!

I love it! It has the ease and comfort of a t-shirt dress, but the double layer gathered sleeves make it fun. You can make the entire thing out of the same fabric, or choose different fabrics for the top and skirt the way I did here.

A little girl in a dress with striped top and floral skirt

I’ll show you the top version next week!

A little girl in a blue dress made from a pdf sewing pattern

But for now, here’s how to make the dress. First, click here to download the free printable pattern in size 4/5. Print it out at 100% and tape the 3 pieces together without trimming anything. Make sure the test square measures exactly 1 inch by 1 inch. It will look like this:

hello spring dress and top pdf sewing pattern

For the top, you’ll need about 2/3 of a yard of knit (stretchy) fabric. It doesn’t need to have a ton of stretch; in fact it will be easier to sew and look tidier if you avoid super stretchy or super thin knit and pick something a little sturdier instead. For the skirt, you’ll need about a yard of fabric, which can be knit or woven (if you’re making the entire thing out of the same fabric a yard and a half total should be plenty).

Hello spring dress pieces: bodice front and bodice back, sleeves, neckbinding, and skirt

Cut your pieces. You will need one bodice piece cut on the fold using the back neckline and one bodice piece cut on the fold using the front neckline. You’ll also need 4 sleeve pieces; two using the longer length and two using the shorter length (each of those sets should be mirror images). Also cut a long strip of knit for the neckband according to the dimensions on the pattern, and two large rectangles for the skirt, also according to the dimensions on the pattern. NOTE: if you want to squeeze this dress out of less fabric, you don’t have to cut the skirt pieces quite as wide – the skirt just won’t be quite as full.

You’ll start by hemming the sleeve pieces. Turn the bottom of each sleeve piece up 1/2 an inch, press, and hem. I like to hem using a double needle because I think it looks nicest, but you can actually just use a straight stitch here if you’d like. On the shorter sleeve pieces you can trim off the area shown with the arrow below after hemming.

Sleeve pieces folded up and hemmed

Next, you’ll gather the sleeves. Stack a short sleeve piece on top of a longer sleeve piece and then sew 2 rows of gathering stitches along the top, between the dots marked on the pattern. A gathering stitch is a longer stitch length and a low tension.

Sleeve piece gathered across the top

Pull the bobbin threads to gather each sleeve until the top of the sleeve is 5 inches inches wide. Then sew over the gathers with a normal straight stitch to secure them.

Next, start sewing the sleeves to the bodice. Lay down the back bodice and match up the back edge of a sleeve, as shown below (RST). Sew the sleeve to the bodice, as shown by dots below. Repeat with the other sleeve on the other side of the back bodice.

Sleeve piece pinned to bodice front

Now sew the front side of each sleeve to the front bodice in the same way.

At this point, match up the side seams and sew them, as shown below.

Bodice front and back attached to sleeves; side seams marked

Next, fold the neckbinding piece in half lengthwise and press. Start pinning the binding piece to the neckline as shown below. Along the front and back of the neckline, stretch the binding piece quite a bit as you pin it to the top. When the binding meets itself, unfold it and sew it together (you should have a couple inches of extra binding that you’ll cut off).

Neckbinding pinned into neckline

Since you stretched the neckbinding as you were pinning, it will cause the neckline to bunch up, as shown in the first photo below. As you sew the binding on, stretch it again until it lays flat, as shown in the second photo below.

Neckbinding stretched to fit neckline

Sew the binding to the neckline using a stitch that will stretch, such as a zig zag, stretch stitch, or serger stitch. It may look a little wonky once it’s sewn on; just give it a good press with a lot of steam and you’ll have a nicely finished neckline, as you can see below. (For another explanation of how to finish the neckline, see this post.)

Completed dress bodice

The hard part’s done!

Closeup of a sleeve

Now we’ll add the skirt. Place the skirt pieces right sides together and sew down the sides (the short edges). You’ll now have a skirt piece that’s much wider than the bodice, so we’ll gather the top of the skirt to fit. Sew two rows of gathering stitches all the way around the top of the skirt. I like to change the bobbin thread to a different color when doing this so it’s easy to find, as shown below.

Gathering stitches sewn around top of skirt

Mark the center front and center back of the skirt with pins. Then start pulling on the bobbin threads of the gathering stitches to gather up the skirt. Continue to gather until the top of the skirt is the same width as the bottom of the bodice, as shown below.

Skirt gathered to be the same width as the bottom of the bodice

Evenly distribute the gathers around the top of the skirt. Mark the center front and center back of the bodice with pins. Now you’ll place the bodice (right side out) inside the skirt (right side in) and then match up the pins on the skirt to the pins on the bottom. Match up the side seams as well.

Bodice pinned inside the skirt

Sew the skirt to the bodice using a stitch that will stretch, such as a zigzag, stretch stitch, or serger stitch. Once that’s done, you can pull the gathering stitches out.

NOTE: If you end up using a fabric for the skirt that’s heavier than the fabric for the top, it’s possible the waistline will get a little stretched out. If that seems to be happening, you can sew thin elastic into the seam allowance, as explained in this post. That post also gives a more thorough overview of how to attach the skirt to the bodice if you need more explanation.

A little girl posing for a picture wearing a dress made from a sewing pattern

To finish the dress, hem to the desired length. For reference, my daughter is 5 and a bit small for her age, and I turned up the hem a total of 3 inches and it hits just above her knee. The wide hem means I can let it down a couple of inches as she grows!

 

A little girl wearing the hello spring dress

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16 Comments

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Comments

  1. Diane Pomberg says

    March 26, 2021 at 5:58 pm

    What is the seam allowance used for sewing the Hello Spring dress? I didn’t see that information in the sewing directions. Thanks for the help.

    Reply
    • Autumn says

      March 27, 2021 at 9:05 pm

      Half an inch. Good luck!

      Reply
  2. Lara says

    January 22, 2021 at 10:06 pm

    I made the pattern as the top. Thank you for providing it. I found the 22 inches, using cotton ribbing, to be waaaaay to big, making the neckline wonky though. I ended up cutting it off the shirt, and cutting a new piece of ribbing to 18 inches, which made it work much, much better for me.

    Reply
    • Autumn Baldwin says

      March 13, 2021 at 7:52 pm

      Hi Lara! I always recommend cutting a longer piece than you will actually need, then fitting the ribbing in, stretching it as you go, and then cutting off any excess. Sorry if that wasn’t clear from the directions and thanks for leaving a comment to help clarify it for people!

      Reply
  3. Sam says

    December 27, 2018 at 6:45 am

    Hi Autumn,
    If I was to use cotton poplin for this dress are all the measurements the same?

    Reply
  4. Kadri says

    April 10, 2017 at 1:57 pm

    Thanks for the awesome pattern, my girls love it (:
    I used it to show off my fabric design, the pictures are on my Instagram account (https://www.instagram.com/kadri_nurmoja/), more pictures will be displayed on my webpage when I get it up.

    Reply
  5. Josephine says

    March 8, 2017 at 9:10 pm

    Hi,

    Thank you for the Pattern, I am trying to made it now. I just want to make sure the neck Binding is 15 inches tall and 22 inches wide? 15 inches tall fold in half will be 7inches tall? Will it be too much for the neck binding?

    Reply
    • autumn says

      March 16, 2017 at 11:16 am

      Hi! Sorry I missed this comment last week. The neckbing in one and a half inches tall. Good luck!

      Reply
  6. karen cunniffe says

    October 23, 2016 at 6:16 pm

    I have made this dress a few times from your pattern for some customers and they love it. I have a customer who would love it in a size 8. Are you drafting this pattern up in bigger sizes and smaller than the 4/5 years.

    Reply
  7. Anne says

    July 1, 2016 at 8:25 pm

    I made this dress for the little girl of a colleague of my husband. I really enjoyed making it, and I’m told the little girl is very happy with it 🙂

    http://www.zonderdank.be/saturnein/?p=7183

    Scroll down for pictures, first in the article on my blog are two skirts for my niece.

    Reply
  8. Alice McLeod says

    May 25, 2016 at 6:23 pm

    Hi Autumn.
    I am really interested in making this dress for my niece but the problem is that she is 3, and a bit smaller than girls her age. Can you recommend any ways of adjusting the pattern to fit her? I really would like to make this and thank you for making it so easy to access and free! thank you

    Reply
    • alexandra says

      June 28, 2016 at 4:31 am

      Borrow a t-shirt that fits your niece and then make a pattern by tracing that looks like the raglan sleeve top pattern she made for her daughter. Make sure you add seam allowance. Make sure the bottom fabric you use is at least double the waist measurement in width.

      Reply
  9. Kavita pujari says

    May 21, 2016 at 9:05 pm

    Can this be made with a 100% cotton quilting fabric instead of a knit fabric? Thanks.

    Reply
  10. Judy says

    April 9, 2016 at 7:35 am

    I love this pattern for my grandaughter! I can’t wait to try it.

    Thanks so much!

    Reply
  11. Marianne Agterdenbos says

    April 1, 2016 at 1:11 am

    Dear Autumn,

    This is what I was looking for! Thank you so much. Now I can use the febric I have for so long in my cupboard 😉

    I love your daugther, she is such a lovely girl. Growing up to be a little lady.

    Much love from the Netherlands

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Back to School Outfits #1 with Gymboree - Lulu & Celeste says:
    August 9, 2018 at 8:43 am

    […] Free pattern in size 4/5 […]

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I'm Autumn, a mom of five who loves ice cream, Masterpiece Theatre, and clothes that hide the fact that I eat so much ice cream. When I was 18 I got a job at a craft store and told everyone (regularly) how much I hated crafts. Well, things change! Read More…

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