Tutorial: Yoked Knit Sundress for the '30 Days of Sundresses Series'

 

I'm super excited to share a new dress design today as part of the Melly Sews '30 Days of Sundresses' series.  A whole month of sundress tutorials for girls and women from a huge crop of talented bloggers!

Illustrious company, eh?  At least I'm going at the beginning so my oh-my-god-how-can-I-top-that levels are relatively low.  I say relatively low as this post is following Andrea's, who made a super cute Easy Wrap Tunic!  So what am I bringing to the table?

This tutorial will show you how to adapt a knit tank pattern (or a t-shirt if you prefer- I haven't added sleeves but the principle is the same!) into a yoked dress with contrast trim.  If you don't have a pattern that you like you can always trace one off an existing garment.  The bits you'll need are the bodice section through the armholes; I'm using my skater dress pattern because I'm nothing if not predictable.

Trace out your bodice piece from the neckline through to the arm curve.

 

First, draw a curved line from a point about half way down your armhole to the centre front fold.  This becomes your stitch line.  I used my french curve to do this; where it hits at centre front should be at a right angle.

Then draw a seam allowance line above this curve.  The original curve line in black becomes your stitch line.

To make an a-line dress I extended from the armpit down to dress length at an a-line angle, and then a gentle curve to the centre front.

Using a separate piece of paper, trace the upper bodice section and add the seam allowance below the curve.  This is your yoke.  As above, the black curve line is your stitch line.

Cut both along the seam allowance lines.  You'll now have two pieces; the upper bodice and the main body of the dress.  The upper bodice has the seam allowance below, the lower section has the seam allowance above.

Use your yoke piece to draft the back piece.  It should be identical to the front piece except for the neckline.

Now you have three pieces: front bodice top, back bodice top, and two identical lower portions.  The lower portion will be cut twice for both the front and back.  Cut out your pieces.

For the back, I did a simple join between the upper and lower pieces without a trim.  Right sides facing, match centre back of the upper and lower pieces and pin along the curve.  You will find that there is a triangular wedge of the lower portion that will hang over the edge of the yoke, this is because you are aligning stitch lines rather than edges.  Once sewn and pressed toward the top, the wedge disappears and the arm curve is nice and smooth.  

Sew along the edge carefully and following the curve.

Press seam allowance towards the top. Wedge gone!

Topstich the seam allowance to the upper bodice. I use a 3.2 stitch length to avoid the stitch breaking from stretching.

All done with the back, set aside.

For the front I added a contrast trim between the yoke.  I used a strip of fabric (pressed on the fold) of the same height of my neck band for uniformity.  Rather than measure a precise length of trim, I sewed a strip on using gentle stretching so that it followed the curve and then I trimmed back to the original piece afterwards.

 

Baste the trim to your lower section within the seam allowance, pulling the trim only ever so gently.

Trim away the excess.

Now sew on the yoke as you did the back of the dress.  Press towards the top with all your might.  The contrast strip will try its best to flip up.  Press the bejesus out of it so that the seam allowance is facing up but the contrast strip is facing down.

Topstitch the seam allowance to the upper bodice. Then topstitch the strip to the lower section, very close to the edge.  Again, I use a 3.2 stitch length to avoid the stitch breaking from stretching.

Finally, sew up the rest of the dress as you would normally do.  For me (as I prefer to sew in neckbands and armbands in the flat) the process is: sew one shoulder, sew neckband, sew other shoulder, sew both arm trims, sew side seams, and hem. You're done!

Thanks very much for having me, Melissa!