My best-selling tiered dress for girls is back with a Fall-ready version featuring sleeves! With its simple, classic yoke and beautifully gathered tiered skirt, the Nicole Tiered Dress is the perfect dress to sew for the season.
For this version, I used gingham fabric, which is so popular right now. But you can easily switch things up with florals, stripes, or even solid fabrics in beautiful Fall colors to create adorable dresses for your little ones.
This is truly an evergreen dress pattern that can be sewn for any season. And if you love the oversized look that’s trending these days, simply move up one size for a relaxed, roomy fit.
This pattern is a fun combination of my classic girls’ dress with sleeves and my popular tiered dress for girls. So, if you’ve sewn both patterns before, you’ll love seeing these two favorites come together in one sweet Fall dress!
If you would like to sew a vintage style girl’s dress for girls, click on the picture below for the pattern:
Medium- weight cotton fabric for the dress bodice and lining- requirements specified in the table-3 below.
Medium-weight cotton fabric for the skirt tiers- requirement specified in the table-4 below.
Sewing Notions.
Fabric Marking Pen.
Kam snaps or if you know how to sew buttonholes, you may use normal buttons too.
Pattern template. **Enter your email address and click the subscribe button in the blue box below to download the template.
All the fabrics used here are of 44/ 45 inches width.
The seam allowance is 3/8-inch unless otherwise specified.
I suggest you read the entire pattern once before starting to get a general idea.
All seams are to be finished by zigzag or serger.
Size Chart
Table-1
Approximate Finished Measurements.
*Note that the dress has approximately 2 to 3 inches ease. You may move a size down, if you would want a more fitted bodice.
* The dress is supposed to hit just below the knee.
Table-2
Material Requirements For Bodice and Sleeves.
Table-3
Fabric Requirements for Skirt Tiers.
Table-4
Measurements
In the table below, “L” stands for the length and “W” stands for the width of the fabric piece to be cut.
Table-5
Sewing
Gather the supplies.
Cut the pattern template for the front bodice, fold the fabric to fit the width of the template and place the template on the fold. Mark around it and cut to get the front bodice piece. Repeat the steps to get the front lining piece
Next, cut the back pattern template and keep it along the edge of the folded fabric as shown in the picture. Mark and cut to get two pieces of the back bodice.
Repeat the steps to get two more of the same piece (for the back lining).
Also cut your two sleeves using the respective templates (** Transfer the marks for the gathers on to the sleeve).
You will get your front bodice, back bodices, lining and sleeve pieces like the above.
Cut the skirt tier pieces referring to the table-5 above.
Let’s start sewing.
1) Take the front bodice and the front lining pieces, layer them with the right sides together, aligning the edges and sew along the neck, leaving a 3/8-inch seam. 2) Clip the curves and cut the corners to reduce the bulk in the seam. 3) Turn over to the right side and press flat. 4) Topstitch around the neck to make it clean and crisp.
Next, we finish the back bodice pieces.
1) Take one of the back bodice pieces and a lining piece, layer them with the right sides together, aligning the edges and sew along the button edge (center back) and neck, as marked by the black line. Repeat the same with the remaining back bodice and lining pieces. 2) Clip the corners and edges as you did for the front bodice. 3) Turn over to the right side and press 4) Topstitch along the neck and center back.
Next, we join the front and back bodice pieces together.
Layer the front and back bodices, with the right sides together, lining up the side seams and shoulders (you will notice that the back pieces overlap along the center for button opening). Sew the side seams and the shoulders shut.
Next, sew the overlapping part of the back bodice shut, 3/8-inch from the lower edge.
Let’s finish the sleeves. For that we first finish the hem that doubles as a casing for the sleeve elastic.
1) Fold the straight edge of the sleeve pieces by 3/8- inch and press. Fold again by ½- inch and press once more. 2) Sew the hem along the edge of the fold.
1) Take the required length of the elastic, referring to the table- 3 above, cut it into 2 equal pieces and insert one of the pieces through the casing formed, using a safety pin. 2) Secure the ends of the elastic by sewing back and forth a few times.
1)To gather the sleeve, sew a basting stitch between the points marked earlier. Pull the thread from the bobbin gently to gather it. 2)Fold the sleeve over, with the right sides together and the edges aligning. Sew it shut along the side edge. Repeat with the other sleeve.
Let’s attach the sleeves to the bodice.
Place the sleeve on its right side and the bodice with the lining facing out. Keep the lower edge of the sleeve facing the armhole and slide the sleeve into the armhole.
Start lining up the edge of the sleeve with the armhole. Adjust the gathering in the sleeve such that it fits the armhole and the gathers are uniform on either side of the shoulder. Pin the sleeve along the armhole. Bring the machine settings back to normal and sew them together, removing the pins as you go.
Repeat the steps on the other armhole with the other sleeve.
Our bodice is almost done. We move on to the skirt part.
Take the fabric pieces for the third skirt tier, join them along the short edges to get a closed fabric ring.
Next, we need to gather it. Turn the upper thread tension of your machine to zero and stitch length to the longest to get a basting stitch.
Sew a basting stitch along the upper edge of the skirt tier and gather it.
Adjust the gathering to make it uniform and to fit the lower edge of the second skirt tier.
Take the fabric strips for the second tier and join the short edges to get a fabric ring.
Keep the third (gathered tier) on its wrong side and keep the second tier on its right side above it. Slide the second tier inside the third.
Turn the machine settings back to normal.
Line up the raw edges of the two together and pin all around, adjusting the gathering to make it uniform as you go. Sew the two tiers together along the pinned edges.
Turn over to the right side and topstitch along the seam line of the two tiers to make it clean and crisp.
Sew a basting stitch along the upper edge of the second tier and gather it.
Take the first tier and join the short edges to get a fabric ring. Adjust the gathering in the second tier to match the lower edge of the first.
Keep the first tier on its right side, above the second tier (kept on its wrong side) and slide the first into the second. Line up the raw edges and pin all around.
Sew the pinned edges together.
Sew a basting stitch along the upper edge of the first tier and gather it.
Let’s attach the skirt to the bodice. Adjust the skirt gathering to make it uniform and to match it with the lower edge of the bodice.
Keep the skirt on its wrong side. Keep the bodice on its right side, with its shoulders facing the skirt and slide the bodice into the skirt.
Line up the gathered edge of the skirt with the lower edge of the bodice and pin all around. Sew the skirt to the bodice, removing the pins as you go.
Turn over to the right side and topstitch along the seamline of the skirt and bodice for a neater finish.
We need to hem the lower edge of the dress.
Fold the lower edge of the dress twice by 1/2-inch towards the wrong side and press.
Sew down the hem along the edge of the fold.
Let’s attach the KAM snaps.
Starting from the top edge, make markings at 2-inches gap from each other, on the right side of one of the back piece and attach the KAM snaps. Make markings with a 2-inch gap on the wrong side of the other back piece also and attach the complimentary KAM snaps.
