Welcome to Part 4 of our Learn to Sew series. In this final instalment, you're going to build on your existing skills to make a perfectly-fitting dress.

FIND THE FULL SERIES HERE

Your Free Pattern: The Brigitte Dress

This elegant tunic dress is a pleasure to make due to the sheer simplicity of its construction. Brigitte can be made in lightweight fabrics for casual holiday/daytime wear or perhaps in heavier more luxurious fabrics for office and formal wear. It is also suitable for both woven and stretch fabric, so why not step up your skills and make a comfy jersey dress?

You will need:

thread (good quality)
iron on medium weight interfacing (0.2 metres)
22” concealed zip

Find Your Perfect Fit

So far in this series, we've only sewn simple garments which are easy to fit. When you progress to dresses, you might find that you need to make more tweaks - but don't worry, we can keep it simple! Claire-Louise Hardie shares her expert tips for adjusting dressmaking patterns to perfectly fit your bust, back and height.

How To Achieve the Perfect Fit: Dressmaking Masterclass

Download your pattern here!

Need a refresher on working with PDF patterns? Take a look back at parts 1 and 2 of this series.

Pattern Notes

Seam allowances unless otherwise indicated are 1.5cm.
Follow pattern notches.

It is really important to launder your fabric (according to instructions) before you sew with it. This allows for shrinkage. On the pattern sheet there are labels you can cut out to pin onto your fabric pieces after you have cut them out to remind you which piece is which (handy if you cut out and leave to sew at a later date). You must then apply interfacing to the wrong side of your facing pieces. Finally you must overlock or zigzag stitch all raw edges. These are: dress side seams, bottom edge of skirt pieces (hems), the bottom edge of the neckline facing and sleeve side seams and edges.

Stretch Yourself!

This simple pattern can be sewn in woven (non-stretch) or jersey (stretch) fabric for a comfier feel.

Follow our top tips for sewing with jersey for the first time

You don't need a fancy machine to sew with stretch! Your regular machine will do just fine - you simply have to learn your way around a couple of handy stitches.

Expert guide to sewing stretch on a regular sewing machine

Layplans

Start Sewing

Key to Illustrations

Pin/mark darts and stitch from the leg (widest end) to the point (x). Don’t backstitch when you get to the end, tie a knot in the threads.
Press darts upwards.

Expert Guide: How to Sew Darts

Pin/mark back darts in place and press towards centre back (x).

With RST pin/baste and then stitch the front and back dress at the shoulders.
Press shoulder seams open.

Join front and back facings together at shoulder seams and press seam open.
Then, with RST, pin facing to dress neckline and stitch in place. Take care to align the shoulder seams of the facing with the shoulder seams of the dress.
Notch neckline facing. Turn back to inside of dress.
Press flat.

Optional extra step!

A little top-stitching around the neckline can really elevate a dress like this. Go slowly and mind the curve! You may need to take a couple of attempts to get this right, but it'll be worth it.

If you need to unpick your stitches, take a look at our Expert Guide To Unpicking

Place sleeve RST with dress in the armhole curve, and ease into place. You may wish to make a row of gathering stitches (between X and Y) and gather sleeve to fit armhole curve.

RST stitch down the side seam from the edge of sleeve to the bottom of dress hem.
Press seam open.

Turn dress RIGHT sides out and on the centre back pin zip RST with dress. Handtack in place and remove pins. Swap machine foot to a zipper foot and stitch in place stitching close to the teeth.
Repeat other side.
Remove hand tacks.

How to Sew a Zip

Inserting a zipper can be daunting but don't worry - you can tackle it when you take it one step at a time! Find our beginner's guide to sewing zips here.

Turn dress inside out and from the last stitch you made (x) continue to sew all the way down to the bottom of the dress.

Turn dress RS out. Fold facing so it falls over the top of the zip, so the facing and dress are RST. Stitch down the side of the zipper tape (through the facing). Fold facing back to inside of the dress and press flat.

Turn up edge of dress hem and sleeves by 0.5cm and iron flat, stitch close to edge, repeat.
Finish all internal seams with zig-zag stitch or an overlocker.
Give dress an overall good pressing.

Not sure where to go to buy good-quality fabric? Check out our sewing shop directory where you'll be able to find a whole range of fabulous online dressmaking shops.