Free Party Dress Pattern for Your American Girl Doll!

I made up a pretty basic pattern to make this dress for a giveaway.  The real niceness to it is in the loving details, like all the top stitching on the seams, the zig-zag collar and parallel skirt seam, and the inch wide bottom hem.

 I like details like that because I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist, but if you are in a hurry it's not necessary and should be easy for you to create too.  As a heads up, I plan on making a dress just like it for Blythe, so be on the look out for a new free dress pattern for your little girl in the next few weeks. Here it is!

This is a 3 piece pattern with a total of 6 pieces to sew together!  Easy enough for a beginner and a fast fun project for an experienced seamstress.  I hope you enjoy it and the tutorial I made to help you through it.
Materials:
1/4 yard of material (9 inches or about 23cm)
Thread to match
Zig-Zag trim (at least 45 inches or 114cm) - optional

Here is your pattern with a 1 inch guide to make sure your print is the right size.  Right click and select Print.  Here is the pattern to print.  Print it at 100%, if you have a problem doing this here is a link to the PDF.

To layout the pattern, fold 8.75 inches of your material over.  Put your front piece on the fold and position the sleeves and the back to be 2 cuts from each piece as shown below.

You will be left with a strip about 36x9 inches that will be used for the skirt.  Straighten the edges.  My finished strip was 35x8.5 inches.

1. Sew the shoulder seams together. Fold the sleeves in half and iron it flat.

2. Along the curved edge of the sleeve, put a wide stitch in it (4.5mm+) and push and pull the fabric together.  It will curl in on itself.  Lay the gathered sleeve on the right side of the fabric and sew it onto the armhole curves.

3. Iron the sleeve over an topstitch around the armholes.  Over edge stitch (or serge or zigzag stitch) along the neck opening and back, iron it under.  Sew the neck opening down using your zig-zag trim on the inside.  Topstitch the collar seam.  Sew down the back edge.

4. Here's a view of it inside out.

5. Sew the under arm edges together.

1. For the skirt, over-edge stitch 3 inches down on each of the short sides. Iron them under and sew it down.  

2. Along the long edge that you haven't sewn on, iron under a 1 inch hem and sew it down.  Sew your zig-zag trim down along the seam.

3. On the opposite side, put a long stitch (4.5m+) along the edge.  Start right after the sewn down edge and sew to the other without touching those seams.

4. Push and pull the skirt until it is as wide as your top. (Approx 13.5 inches).

5. Sew the skirt to the top and remove the gathering stitch.  Topstitch down the skirt just above the skirt seam.

6. Sew the back together up to the part of the skirt that has been seamed down, 3 inches below the top.  Cut your velcro to 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches and sew it on.  On the back top edges, put the soft velcro on the right side of your fabric and the scratchy velcro on the wrong side of fabric.

Here is a view of the dress from the inside out.

You are done!  Enjoy and come to the blog hop to win!

Here are link parties I love and have linked this on!