Tutorial 17 - A different kind of peasant dress

I just love me a good peasant dress - the pattern is so versitile, it's such a quick dress to make and you can make the pattern yourself. I saw this dress, from a designer which is rather pricy here in Norway. I love the look and comfort of this dress and wanted to make a similar one. I decided to do long sleeves because winters are really cold here.

Tina Wodstrup dress

There are a lot of really nice patterns for sale on Etsy, just search for peasant dress and they will pop up. I usually make my own pattern from clothes they already have. I find a piece of clothing with the sleeves angled like in the peasant dress. fold it in half throught the middle, and the sleeves tucked in under. Then I cut around it. The shirt I used this time had a more tight fit, so I made the middle part wider, not putting the shirt towards the edge of the fabric. THen I do the same thing with the back piece and the sleeves. I cut it off at the desired length.

To sew the dress:

1. Sew the side seams of the dress.

2. Sew the length of the sleeves.

3. Turn the sleeves inside out - aka the right way and put them inside the dress, right sides together. Sew around the arm hole, from back neck to front neck, shown above.

4. Fold down the neckline. Leave an opening for the elastic. Topstitch on top of the hem as well, the fold will lay nicer around the neck.

I made my dress into an open dress, which I kind of regret, I should just have made it a fake opening....
But: 5. Cut the middle of your front piece (or not)

6. Cut a piece long enough for the length of the dress x 2-3 inch

7. Fold this piece in half, sew it on to the front of the dress, first I sewed it on folded backwards, the I turned it the right way and topstitched around.

8. Fold the other side of the front piece and sew one seam.

9. Put in the elastic from side to side or if you didn't make it a jacket, from the hole and around. Sew in place.

10. I used elastic on my bobbin and sewed three rows of elastic at the bottom of the sleeves.
11. Sew one row of elastic around the waist, make sure this goes in a straight line.

12. The bottom of the dress was hemmed and got a lace around it.
13. Because this is a dress, I didn't make buttonholes, I just sewed the buttons through both layers.

A nice warm peasant dress... tomorrow I'll show you how you easily can alter dresses like this one.