How to make a dress with princess seam panels and a flared skirt

Welcome to a new pattern making class. In today’s class, I’m going to teach you how to make a dress with side panels and volume from the waist down.

In previous classes, you already learned how to create the side seams, but today I’m going to teach you how to correct them when we can’t or don’t want to ease the fabric.

For example, we already know that if we send patterns to factories, we have to adapt them to avoid errors.

This also happens when they have to ease fabric that, if done quickly, doesn’t turn out well.

Following this line, I will remind you again how to square off the seam allowances so that the shoulder seams fit perfectly.

Today’s class begins using the bodice block pattern up to the hip, where the first thing we will change is the desired length.

Next, we’ll change the neckline; I’m only doing this for design purposes and because I want you to practice corrective darts.

Once we have removed the ease using corrective darts, we will create the side panels.

At this point, I’m going to show you how to adjust the side panel so that when you sew it to the front, it fits perfectly.

Finally, we will add volume from the waist down to create this princess dress effect.

Class

If you don’t remember how to square off the seams, you can see it in more detail in this lesson here.

Depending on your final fabric, the drape of the dress hem will change quite drastically.

In this sample, we have used calico, which is a stiff fabric; if you want a nicer drape, you can use a fabric with drape (that is not stiff) for a different hem.

It is important that you make a prototype with a fabric similar to the final fabric you are going to use to check that everything works perfectly.

Remember that if you have any questions about today’s class, you can always send me an email through your student account, in the support section.

Submit your exercises

You know that the best way to learn is by practising, so for today’s class, I’m going to ask you to make the same patterns that I have made.

You can make these patterns at full size or half scale.

Please try to make sure the photos are clear and accurate so I can give you better feedback.