Excerpts from a handmade toddler's raglan sleeve dress

Instead of gathering the front skirt I always make a few pleats to either side of the center of the front skirt.


folding it over and putting a pin in the center of each piece


Pinning the outer edges together. This leaves a lot of skirt to be made up in between the center and the outer edge.



Make two pleats in the center of the excess, one going each direction - I guess they call this an inverted pleat? I'm not sure, but it's what I do every time.


In the end, the pleats look like this

After this I attached the arms to either side of the bodice - and then also to the back pieces. I didn't catch pictures of these steps. Next is to spread out the neckline and trace a facing for the entire neckline and back zipper area. Zigzag along the bottom edge of the facing to keep it from unraveling, then attach the facing, right sides together, to the bodice of the dress.


In this picture the blue outline is the shape of the facing I cut out of a plain fabric. The green line is where I sew when attaching the facing to the neck and back. Then I turn it right-sides out and topstitch where the dashed lines are.



I like the raglan sleeve pattern because it can be sewn all the way down the sleeve from wrist to the bottom of the skirt. Just be sure to clip out the armpit with the pinking shears before zig-zagging over the seam.

After all of that - it is just putting in the back zipper, hemming the sleeves and the bottom skirt.


And then, it's finished ;)

More complete instructions, with pictures of every step - can be found at my BurdaStyle project page : http://www.burdastyle.com/projects/raglan-sleeved-toddler-dress