How to Make Up Dresses

A basic dress with sleeves.

Sew together seven pieces of flat fabric together in a particular way and you have a dress. Printed patterns come with instructions for constructing the garment after you have cut out the pieces of fabric, but sometimes the instructions are lost. Most printed patterns use the bishop method for constructing a basic dress with sleeves. In the bishop method, the sleeves are put in before the side seams are sewn. This is the bishop method for making up a straight dress with set-in sleeves and a back zipper.

Things You'll Need

• Fabric pieces for a dress
• Pins
• Tape measure
• Zipper
• Sewing machine
• Thread

Instructions

1. Pin the back pieces together along the edge that will be the center of the back.

2. Measure the zipper from the top to the stop, the metal bar that holds the sides together at the end. Mark this distance from the neck along the center back edges.

3. Baste the back pieces together from the neck to the pin. Basting is sewing with a long stitch length so that the stitches will be easy to remove. Sew the pieces together below that. Press the seam open and pin the zipper over the basted part of the seam, aligning the top of the zipper with the edge of the fabric. Use a zipper foot to install the zipper by sewing close to the teeth of the zipper along one side, across the bottom and back up the other side. You will need to move the zipper pull away from the area where you are sewing. Remove the basting threads.

4. Sew the front of the dress to the back at the shoulders. Press open the seam.

5. Gather the sleeves by basting between the notches. Pull up the bobbin thread and pin the sleeves into the arm holes, matching the notches. Sew the sleeves in. Press the seam allowances toward the body of the dress.

6. Pin the top of the collar to the underside and sew along the outside edge. Clip the curves, turn the collar right-side-out and press it. If the dress has facings, sew the back sides of the facing to the front.

7. Pin the collar to the dress with the top side of the collar against the wrong side of the fabric. Pin the facing to the garment with the right side of the facing against the right side of the garment. Sew the collar and/or facing to the dress. Clip the curves and turn the collar to the outside and the facing to the inside. Tack the bottom back edges of the facing to the seam allowances, the raw edges of the fabric that are outside the seam, on each side of the zipper.

8. Sew the sides of the dress together starting from the bottom of the sleeve and sew the underarm seam continuing down the side of the dress to the bottom. Press open the seam.

9. Hem the sleeves and the bottom of the dress.

Tips & Warnings

• Use a 5/8-inch seam allowance.

• If not instructed otherwise, pin the fabric with the rights sides of the fabric together.

• Finish the open seams by zigzagging the edges of the seam allowances.