HOW TO MAKE A SKATER DRESS PATTERN

Hi sew lovers

Welcome to this week’s online pattern making tutorial: How to make A skater dress Pattern

If you are just joining us for the first time, Welcome but most importantly, thank you. Thank you so much for joining us and please do note we do this every Monday here on the Q effectz.

For those who don’t know, a pattern here is merely a sketch work of what we want to make. As wikipedia will say, a template from which designs are drawn and cut out on fabric. And I usually advice, particularly beginners to always begin with patterns  because I am certain you wouldn’t want to cut out your fabric only to realize you’ve made a terrible mistake that would thus, lead to a waste on your fabric.

 

As for a skater dress, this is a dress that begins with a bodice and ends with a circular flare or putting it rather easily, a peplum. I like to see it as making a crop top and a circle skirt( you can see how to make a circle skirt pattern, HERE) and then joining them together. So unlike most flare dresses where you have to pleat the bottom or draw a ‘gather ‘to create a flare, a skater is made easy with a peplum at the end to create that free and effortless flare.

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Now that we’ve got all that out of the way, let’s get to the juicy part.

 

REQUIREMENT

1. 5 wide pattern paper

2. Pencil/marker/pen

3. measuring tape & ruler

4. Scissors & tracing wheel

5. Already-made blouse/crop top

6. Body statistics

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PROCEDURES

1.  Making the bodice: Making the bodice is like making a regular bodice pattern(see HERE )except that your bodice will stop at your waist level  instead of abdomen or hips, like a crop top. Thus this section is divided into two parts: (a) Making the front piece and (b) making the back pieces.

 

(a) Making the front Piece:  To make the front piece of the bodice, take out one of your pattern paper and fold it into equal halves. Also fold your already made blouse/crop top  into equal halves ensuring that the sleeves are either tucked or cut off . Then place it on your scrap paper. If you are using a blouse, kindly ensure that the bottom is folded till it is like a crop top and trace 1.5″ away from the already-made blouse. The 1.5″ is to accommodate for seam allowance. When done your front piece should look like this.

 

When you open up your front piece, it would look like this:

(b) Making the back pieces: To make the back pieces, fold your second pattern paper into equal halves and then place your Front piece 1.5″ away from the folded area and trace. The 1.5″ is to accommodate for zip allowance. Even though you plan to use a stretch fabric or otherwise, it is recommended that you include a zip allowance for zipper. So please note that, including the 1.5″ allowance for zipper applies to both stretch and non-stretch fabric.

When done tracing, your back piece will look like this:

 

 

 

When you open up your back piece, it will look like this:

 

When you cut through the middle using your scissors, you’ll have two pieces.

 

2. Making darts: In our cover photo, the type of dart used is what is known as Princess dart/seam(See HERE to find out more about it). So you can either choose to insert princess darts or regular darts. The choice is your.

To insert regular darts, simply  fold back your front piece into equal halves and measure 4.25″ (This was gotten by dividing the bust length by 8 inches. Using my bust statistics, I have 34 inches divided by 8 and you’ll have 4.25″. Find out more about this, HERE) from the folded area at the bust region. When done, your front piece will look like this:

Then draw a straight line downwards to the bottom of the bodice using your ruler. It will look like this:

With your tracing wheel, trace this point and line to the other side of your bodice, so when you open up your front piece, it’ll look like this:

 

On the other hand, using princess seam/dart, the front piece will look like this:

 

 

see How to Make a Princess Dart/seam, HERE

To make a regular dart for the back piece, see HERE, to find out more. When done, your back pieces should look like these:

3. Making the Peplum/Circle skirt: fold your third pattern paper into two equal halves and then measure 2 inches from the point of intersection, the width of your body plus 1 or 1.5 inch. This 1 inch/ 1.5 inches is to accommodate for zip allowance. Then measure how long you want your peplum/circle skirt to be( See HERE for more instructions)

 

When you cut off the 2 inches above the peplum, your peplum should look like this:

 

 

When you open it up, it will look like this:

Cut through one side of the peplum

4. Making sleeves: Fold your fourth pattern paper into equal halves and place the arm hole of your blouse on it and trace like this:

 Next, take a measurement of your sleeve length from shoulder to arm(depending on how long you want your sleeves to be). In our cover photo, the sleeves length were about 6 inches long. So measure 5 inches + 1 inch(for folding) and draw a straight line from your shoulder like this:

Don’t forget that the folded area must be there the shoulder is located.

 

Next, Measure the round curve of the sleeve.i.e the width of the arm where the sleeve would stop.

 

Supposedly mine was 12″. When we divide by 2, we will have 6″. Thus measure 6 ” from where the sleeve length ended horizontally and mark.

 

Join the line underneath the armhole to meet that point. Like this:

Then finally, join the end points to meet, like this:

 

When you finally remove your blouse, your sleeve pattern would look like this:

Usually, most pattern making tutorials would encourage you to leave the sleeve like this but unfortunately, from my experience, if you cut out your sleeves on fabric with that exact armhole curve, you’ll notice that it never goes around the armhole of the blouse when sewing . So to correct this, Use your initiative to draw a line from where the curve is deepest to the folded area of the sleeve. Like this:

When you erase the original curve line, your sleeve will look like this:

Thus when you open your sleeve, it will look like this:

And of course, you’ll have to trace it on your fifth pattern paper, to make another to have two sleeves.

So that’s it darlings.

Pattern for a Skater dress.

 

 

 

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Please note that come Monday next week, I’ll be showing us how to sew it using a fabric and sewing machine and I’m sure you do not want to miss it. So make sure you invite your friends. If you haven’t subscribed yet, please do so below or you can join our social media platforms. Remember that you can leave your questions or any request you may have and I’ll do my best to answer them/ bring them to you.

So till next week for another tutorial, have a fabulous week ahead and Remember, Never stop sewing!

“And God is able to make all grace [every favor and earthly blessing] come in abundance to you, so that you may always [under all circumstances, regardless of the need] have complete sufficiency in everything [being completely self-sufficient in Him], and have an abundance for every good work and act of charity.”- 2 Corinthians 9:8

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