How to design the world’s most worn dress: Skirt with scarf and belt

I loved what Taylor Swift wore straightforward and elegant short dress. I always wished to make a celebrity style dress. Just didn’t have time to make it - Mom of two little boys and a girl. You know how the parenting is! 

Yesterday, I got some time and decided to make this dress. 

I'll show you how to nail this easy dress step by step.

Before sewing, I always like to team my dresses up with my wardrobe accessories.

For winter:

For summer: 

Material list:

You will require a few things to bring this dress alive.

1. Two yards of fabric.
2. Sewing machine to sew the piece together.
3. Thread spool (duh!)
4. A pair of scissors.
5. A drafting paper or in my case I’ve used baking parchment paper which is easily available in a kitchen or anywhere. If you can’t find any of the above papers go for butter paper.
6. Chalk or a crayon to make marks on the fabric.
7. A measurement table.

Time to complete this dress:

You can sew this skirt and scarf dress in two hours or less.

Step 1:

Choose a material of your choice.

Step 2:

Gauge your size. If you are new to sewing or you don’t know your size. The easiest way is to measure a dress of your own and mark measurements. Alternatively, you can take your body measurements.

Whenever you are considering your sizes, please remember that you’ll need that half of this size is covered in the front, and another half is covered at the back; suppose:

Chest size 32

Half of the 32 is 16 in front and 16 at the back.

But when you are drafting your dress you fold your front half from the neck side so from the fold line you consider ¼ of 32.

¼ of 32 this means there are two folds one fold at the front that divides the front 16 into half eight on each side of the fold. Therefore, when you re-open the fold, it shall measure 16 again.

Therefore, you always measure quarter while drafting. 32 bust size will be marked as eight on the front and back.

Note: Some measurements differ, but for this pattern, we have used mirror cut pattern.

Step 3:

After you have selected and recognized your size, lay your fabric on the working table or the floor.

Step 4:

It is important to get the fabric leveled up. Leveled and trimmed the fabric.

Step 5:

Once you have measurements of shoulder, neck, armhole length, sleeves length, chest, bodice length, the length of the entire dress and waist size we are ready to roll.

In this pattern, we have used large size as a sample.

Length of the dress 34” (which will be just above the knee for tall frame and below knees for petite frame)

The shoulder is 15.”

The neck is 2” front and back 2.”

From shoulder to armhole, 6 ½.”

From shoulder to chest 9.”

From shoulder to bodice length 15.”

Chest width from fold to armhole 9.”

Below chest 8.”

Midriff 6”.

Skirt length 19.”

Skirt width 21” (pleats are added).

Step 6:

Draw all the measurements on the paper. If you are an intermediate level seamstress, then draw it on the fabric. I have used large butter paper that is always handy in the kitchen for baking. These papers are often referred as parchment papers but in the bigger size.

Refer the pictures below on how I have drafted the paper before tracing it on the actual fabric.

This is a simple pattern, which has one cut for both front and back. Therefore, we design front and have two mirror cuts at the same time for the front and back.

Step 7:

After tracing, first start off with neck, slice neck 2” do not keep any hemline for this pattern, as we are making a small and wide-necked pattern. ½ inch will go in fold making it 2 and 1/2in deep neck on both the sides.

Once you have sliced the neck now cut arms, measure your shoulder, it should be around 2 1/2” long and ½ inch is always your seam allowance. Cut your armhole with seam allowance and then drag your scissors to cut your bodice. Your fabric should look something like this.

Step 8:

Cut your skirt.

I used two meters of fabric to create this dress. I used Mul cotton fabric, but you can use fabric of your choice.

Step 9:

Add pleats, the easiest way to add pleats is to attach a pin on both end sides of the bodice. Many times people sew the sides and attach it, but for the beginners, it can be a little tough; so go for an easy way.

Add pleats then sew skirt hemlines then attach your side seams of the skirt your lower part is ready.

Step 10:

Connect your seam allowances of the sleeves and your armhole and sew the side seams of the bodice

Hand stitch your neck seams by using a simple trick turn and stitch until you become a pro at sewing the circles.

Your comfortable dress is ready!