Making a pattern for a one shoulder dress...

Rarely do I use a store bought or PDF pattern.  Most of the time, I use another piece of clothing as a guide, or  I simply measure my child to suit her needs.  She is very tiny in the waist, so anything store bought falls off of her.

Here is a way to make a one shoulder dress pattern for your little one by using measurements.  My daughter is asleep, so her doll will serve as my model.

This post is picture heavy, I apologize in advance.

Fancy photography skills, huh? 

First things first.... You will need...

-wrapping paper, or some type of paper

-scissors

-measuring tape

-a pen

-a model

and a glass of sweet tea. (Just kidding)

I love using left over wrapping paper for making patterns, plus some of it has a great 1 inch grid pattern printed on the back.

Ok... lets measure our model.

Since this is a one arm dress, measure around the top of one shoulder to underneath one arm.

This measured at 14 inches, and I made the overall dress 18 inches around... it needs to be a little roomy to get it on them.

Around the chest.... again, the extra few inches will make it roomy.

Around the hips.

Out seam... measure from underneath the arm to where ever you want the dress to fall.  I like dress to come to the knee on KL, so that is where I measure too.

Over all dress length... measure from the top of the shoulder to the knee again.

Make sure you are jotting it all down.....

And around the arm... divide this in half to get the arm hole depth.

Now, time to draw out your pattern.

Start with your over all dress length.  The doll measured 11 1/2 inches, I am making this side 12 1/2 inches to allow the seam allowance at the top and the bottom.

Make a straight line 12 1/2 inches long.

See that angle at the top?  That is for my top shoulder.  I made it about 2 inches wide, but will cut some off of it later.

From your original straight line, measure across for how wide you want your dress.  Since my dress will be 18 inches, I measured 9 inches.  ( I will cut 2 of my pattern)

The line parallel to my original line is 9 inches long.  I measured the out seam at 8 inches, so I made this 9 inches to allow for the seam allowance.

Then I made a line from the top shoulder, to the 9 inch out seam line.

The bottom of the paper serves as your final line. (Less cutting. Ha ha!)

And here is the pattern, cut it out.

Next, measure for your arm hole depth.  Around the arm was 8 inches, so I measured down 4 inches and marked it.

Then cut out a little J for your arm hole. 

And there is your little pattern.  

To add the ruffles, you will just cut a rectangle 2 1/2 inches long by 16 inches wide.

I will show you how to add it in there. :)

My next post will be putting this dress together.

Be sure to follow me to catch that post.

If you see a step I missed, feel free to comment below and let me know.  I would love to hear from you.