Lounge Dress- Tutorial
Now that it’s the beginning of October and what I like to think of as the start of the holiday season, the temperature starts to dip a little and lazy days at home are most welcome. This project is a comfy lounge dress made from 4 rectangles that can be thrown on to spend time doing chores around the house or even go outside to run some quick errands.
This project incorporates part of Rosery Apparel’s shirring guidelines (with some unintentional deviation) from this video as well as Contour Affair’s cased elastic strap tutorial.
What you’ll need:
- 2 yards of woven fabric (I recommend double gauze for a cozy pajama-esque feel)
- Matching thread
- Shirring elastic
- ¼” elastic
- Ruler
- Measuring tape
- Water erasable pen- Art No. 515
- Fabric scissors
- Wonder pins- Art No. 3210
- Safety pin or bodkin
- Iron
- Hot hemmer- Art No. 7806
Directions:
- For the body of the dress, measure your bust with the measuring tape. This will be the width of the rectangle, mine was 32”. Then measure from the top of your bust (wear the top of the dress will sit) to the length that you want your dress to be, mine was 35”.
- Cut out two rectangles using these measurements.
3. Along the width of the body rectangle, measure ½” and fold down another ½” and edge stitch down. Repeat for the other body rectangle.
4. Wind your bobbin with shirring elastic, trying to add minimal amounts of tension as you go. The matching thread will be placed in the machine through the needle as usual.
*Follow the Rosery Apparel video as linked above for the shirring guidelines and measurements. (Note: I forgot to add the last 3 cm row, so it turned out to be rows of 1 cm, 1 cm, 1 cm, 3 cm, 1 cm, 1.5 cm, 1cm).*
5. Repeat the shirring pattern 3 times or until satisfied. I chose to stop at the third repeat after the 3 cm row so that it stopped at about my hips
6. Repeat steps 4-5 on the second body rectangle.
7. Once the shirring is complete, place the body rectangles right sides together and sew the sides with a 1.5 cm seam allowance. Try to line up the rows of shirring from each piece so that they align nicely. Use the wonder pins to pin everything in place, which will help secure the rows. Finish the seams with your preferred method.
8. For the straps of the dress, we’ll follow the guidance of the Contour Affairs post as seen above. It might be helpful to try on the dress as it’s constructed so far. Use a measuring tape to measure across your shoulder (at the point you want the strap to be) from the front and back of the top of the dress. That measurement will be the length of the strap. The width will be however thick you want your strap to be. My strap measurements were 78cm x 15.5 cm. Cut two strap rectangles using these measurements.
9. Fold the strap rectangle in half lengthwise and sew with a 1.5 cm seam allowance. Grade the seam allowance and turn the strap right side out. Repeat on the other strap rectangle.
10. Press each strap flat with an iron.
11. Measure the width of the strap and mark the center point at each strap end using a water-erasable pen. Then from that center mark, measure out equal distances on both sides from the center that are just a bit larger than the width of the elastic you’ll be using. I marked 1 cm from the center on both sides. Repeat for the other strap.
12. Sew down these marked points. These will become the elastic channels. On my straps, I used a 3 cm seam allowance from the center strap and a 2 cm seam allowance from each side marking.
13. Cut 4 pieces of elastic roughly the strap’s length. Use a safety pin or bodkin to feed your ¼” elastic through the casing. Secure each end of the elastic with stitching. Repeat so that all the channels are filled.
14. Pin the straps evenly to the top of the dress with unfinished ends rolled up ¼” and again by a ¼”. Stitch in place. Repeat on each strap end.
15. Use the hot hemmer and iron to measure and press ½” and then another ½”. Stitch the hem in place.
Now your lounge dress is complete! I love the texture that this shirring pattern gives. By changing up the spacing of each shirred row, there is an added sophistication to the dress. It’s easy to throw on and feel put together at the same time. Tag me @rumer_has_it on IG if you make one too!
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