So lets make a knit dress with sleeves using the Fat Red Bird Dress pattern that has no lining. This is super easy & super quick to sew that you will be making piles of them in no time. Like the previous knit hack, you may want to choose the pattern pieces with a 'Finished Bodice' closer to the child's actual waist measurement for a trim fit.
So before you dive into cutting out your pattern pieces remember that you do not need to cut out any lining. The back of the bodice will be one piece for this hack, to do this place the pattern piece on the fold of fabric overhanging 1.5 inches. We want the back of the bodice to be 1.5 inches less wide as there is no seam here now & no overlap.
Follow The Dress pattern tutorial 'Assembling the bodice' Steps 1 & 2. Refer to previous knit hack tutorial on tips to sew with knit. With right sides facing stitch each of the under arm seams with a 1/2 inch allowance.
Move onto 'Assembling your sleeve' starting at Step 2. Continue on to 'Attaching sleeves to bodice' & 'Assembling the semi circle skirt'.
Attach the skirt to bodice starting at Step 2 of 'Attaching skirt to bodice'. You have now created a dress with raw edges to neckline, end of sleeves & bottom of skirt.
To finish the neckline cut a piece of knit fabric or ribbing that measures 2 inches wide by the total neckline measurement plus approximately 2 inches, ensuring the fabric stretches horizontal along the longest length. With wrong sides facing, fold the neckband in half so it is now 1 inch wide, press.
There are plenty of other ways to attach the neckband to the neckline but I like this technique as it ensures my neckband fits perfectly to the neckline every time, rather than it being a bit too short or too long.
Leaving a tail of about 1 inch pin the neck band to the right side of the dress at the back of the neckline, matching up the raw edges.
Stitch the neckband to the neckline of the dress with a 1/2 inch seam allowance, stopping approximatey 1.5 inches before you get back to where you started, this will leave you will another tail. Check out all the following pictures to get a better idea of how this works.
We now need to join our neckband together before continuing on. Trim the neckband tails so that when stitched together they will be the same length as the remaining neckline.
You can see in the following picture the neckband has been trimmed, sewn together & ready to be folded back in half and stitched to rest of the neckline.
Once it is all stitched, on the wrong side of garment press the neckband seam down towards bodice.
Using this same technique, create cuffs for the sleeves.
Hem skirt by either overlocking edge or with a zig zag stitch.
Thats it, you're done...haven't got The Dress pattern yet, thats OK...you can grab it HERE
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