center insert peasant top & dress
TRANSCRIPT
Center Insert Peasant Top & Dress
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List of required materials:
Fabric
Sewing machine
Scissors
Iron
Pins
¼” elastic
Piece of ribbon
Note: the center insert width can be freely chosen and would ideally measure about 4-5” as shown in
my example below. The sizing chart however gives you the bodice widths for a PLAIN/solid front so you
can also make a simply style dress with border.
These should be pieces you have cut out (sleeves in yellow print, main dress pieces in pink floral print,
small dots print for middle insert strip and two dots print strips for the border):
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To cut the sleeve armhole take the desired size paper cutout and place it into the upper right corner
once you folded the sleeve over as shown:
You may pin the paper cutout or go straight to cutting. Cut away the corner and discard. Repeat with
other sleeve piece.
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Take your main dress piece and fold it over just like the sleeve and place the same paper cutout into the
upper right corner. Pin, cut away the corner and discard. Repeat with other main dress piece.
Once you lay your prepared garment pieces out it should look like this now:
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To do the inserted middle strip, do the following steps:
Mark the center of your main dress piece.
Place your middle strip onto the main dress piece right into the center as shown, and mark two points
about 3/8 inch away from each side of the middle strip. I placed my arrows to show you where to mark.
This will be the area you will cut out and sew in the middle strip.
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The following picture shows you how to mark the other side:
Place your lip edge ruler right onto the marked points and cut down. Repeat with the other side.
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You should now have a slimmer middle strip cut out from the main dress piece as shown:
(you may discard this strip or use it for another dress! )
Now take your middle strip and pin it to the two main dress pieces:
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Sew with a seam allowance of about 3/8 inch and hem/serge/overcast the raw edges.
This is now your main front dress piece. You may topstitch the front where the strip meets the main
dress piece for a nicer appearance. First press--then it’s easier to sew a straight line.
To do the bottom border fold over the strip and press as shown:
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Place the border onto the bottom of the dress piece and pin.
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This is what it should look like now. You may topstitch for a nicer appearance.
Repeat with backside.
To place the sleeve, align the armhole curve with the armhole curve of the main dress piece. Have right
sides together. Pin and repeat with all 3 remaining armholes.
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Sew all 4 pinned armhole curves with a seam allowance of about 3/8 inch and serge/overcast them.
Now your almost finished garment should look like this:
To mark where you will sew your elastic in, unfold your sleeve and spread it out onto your work mat and
place your ruler about 2 inches from the armpit away and draw a line with your fabric marker. You may
also position your elastic lower if you like. If you plan on making a second row of elastic draw the line in
an equal distance. For this dress shown I placed my lower elastic 5 inches below the top elastic.
Note: for sizes newborn through 3t you want to sew in the elastic before sewing the sleeves together!
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Get ready to sew your garment together along the sleeves and down the sides. In order to do so please
align the sides and meet the armpit seams (as shown with my arrow). Pin and sew with a seam
allowance of about 3/8 inch and serge/overcast. Repeat with other side.
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Leave your garment turned inside out and take your sleeve and fold it down to ¼ inch and press. Then
fold it down once more to ¼-3/8 inch and press. Straight-stitch close to the inner edge. Repeat with
other sleeve.
Go over to the neckline and fold it down to ¼ inch and press. Fold it down once more to about 0.5 inch
and press.
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Pin the entire neckline (I didn’t pin anything but I do suggest to do so)
Straight stitch close to the inner edge leaving a 1-inch opening for inserting the elastic. I placed my
arrows and a pencil for you to see the opening:
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Secure a safety pin to your elastic strip and insert it into the casing. Take another safety pin and secure
the end of the elastic to the garment so it won’t get pulled in. Once the two ends meet hand sew both
ends overlapping a little bit with about 10 stitches or more.
Now close the opening with your sewing machine.
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How to sew elastic thread into the sleeves: To sew in the elastic thread wind some elastic thread onto a bobbin manually. Wind it tightly but not to tight. Some sewing machines require it being wound differently. Set your sewing machine’s tension to 2-3 and the stitch length to 5. Insert your sleeve with the print showing (right side out) into your sewing machine. Start at the seam. Now sew along the line all the way around and secure the beginning and end by sewing back and forth a couple of times and cutting all threads and knotting them on the inside. Repeat if your garment has to have another line of elastic close to the wrist. If the elastic doesn’t look much gathered, simply press this part with your iron on steam setting. Steam pulls the elastic thread tighter together. Recommended is at least 2 rows of elastic thread as some machines won’t gather it much.
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This would be a sleeve with only one sewn in elastic.
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FINISHED GARMENT:
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How to make a little bow:
I love accessorizing with little embellishments and thought this bow would be so cute placed onto the
front. But anywhere it would look lovely. You can even make matching hairbows and simply fasten the
bows onto hair clips or alligator clips! Take your piece of fabric and serge/overcast both slim edges:
Fold both serged edges towards the middle slightly overlapping. I put my pencil there to make the little
corner stay open for you to see the overlap.
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Pin it in place and sew the raw edges with a seam allowance of about ¼ inch.
Turn it inside out so the right sides are showing now. Have your strip of ribbon ready. Heat-seal the ends
with holding a lighter very briefly to the ends to prevent fraying.
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Take your fabric piece and “pinch” it into bow shape.
Place your ribbon right on top, holding it firmly:
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Pin both ends together as shown:
Hand sew the ribbon together with several stitches. Make sure to also sew onto the bow so it won’t shift
during handling. If you prefer to sew the bow onto your garment you may do that just please make sure
to stitch all four corners of the bow in place (onto the garment) so it won’t hang loose or uneven when
worn/washed.
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FINISHED!
For all questions or suggestions to make this pattern better please email me at
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For questions please email [email protected]
Thank you so much for using this pattern!
Copyright © Whimsy Couture, 2011 (do not copy or distribute without my consent)
SIZING Chart for Center Insert PEASANT DRESS:
Purchase your fabric, wash, dry and iron before you start (that prevents any shrinkage)
Best when used a garment bag. If you don’t have one simply pin two thin dishtowels together
with safety pins leaving only little room between each pin. Once dry, trim off any loose and
fraying threads.
Please cut two pieces of fabric in the following measurements (in inches) for the main top/dress
pieces. The given measurements are for a solid main garment piece without insert! The insert
width can be freely chosen.
This chart reflects the lengths for dresses plus an added border.
Size
DRESS
Cut 1
bodice & 1
front bodice
Width x
length
Cut 1
border
piece Width x
length
Yardage
For front
and back bodice
Cut 2 Sleeves
width x length
¾ - full
Yardage
for
sleeves
Elastic for
neckline
(1/4” width)
Nb 13”x10” 13” x 4” 0.5 yd 14” x 8” 12” 0.5 yd 13”
3-6m 14”x13” 14 ”x4” 0.5 yd 14.5” x9” 13” 0.5 yd 14”
9-12m 15.5”x15” 15.5”x4.5” 0.5 yd 14 ¾” x 9 ¼ “ 13 ¾ “ 0.5 yd 15”
18m 16.5”x16” 16”x4.5” 0.5 yd 15” x 10.5” 14.5” 0.5 yd 15.5”
2t 17.5”x17” 17.5”x5” 2/3 yd 15 ¼” x11” 15 ¼ “ 0.5 yd 16”
3t 18”x17” 18”x6” 2/3 yd 15.5” x 11.5” 16” 0.5 yd / 16.5”
4t 19”x18” 19”x6” 2/3 yd 16” x 12” 16.5” 0.5 yd / 17”
5t 20”x20” 20”x6.5” 1 +2/3 yd 16.5” x 14 18” 0.5 yd / 17.5”
6 21”x22” 21” x 6.5” 1 +3/4 yd 16 ¾ “ x 14.5” 18.5” 2/3 yd / 18”
7/8 22”x24” 22”x 7” 1 + ¾ yd 17” x 15” 19” 2/3 yd / 18.5”
9/10 23”x26” 23”x7” 2 yds 17.5” x 16” 20” 2/3 yd / 19”
11/12 25”x36” 25”x7” 2 yds 18” x 16.5” 21” 2/3 yd / 19.5”
For making tops please subtract the following measurements from the above given DRESS
lengths:
TOP Chart: 0-3m 3”
3-6 m 3”
9-12m 3”
18m 5”
24/2t 5”
3t 6”
4t 6”
5t 7”
6 7”
7/8 8”
9/10 10”
11/12 11”
CENTER INSERT:
Determine the width of the middle strip to your liking and make adjustments when you are
cutting the front garment piece (described in instructions.
LITTLE BOW:
Cut 1x piece 5”x7” plus ribbon in 2.5”
For all questions or suggestions to make this pattern better please email me at
Thank you so much for using this pattern!
Copyright © Whimsy Couture, 2012 (do not copy or distribute without my consent)
1 inch
NB3-6m9-12m18m2t3t4t5t67/891011/12
ArmholeCutouts
1
TUTORIAL to sew in band elastic (wherever shirring
doesn’t work!)
With right side down, draw a line at where you want the elastic ,as shown in pink:
Cut your elastic (1/4 – 3/8” width) to about half of what your sleeve/garment’s width measures. Pin
elastic in sections right onto the drawn line. Best is to first pin both ends to one side seam then pin the
center of the elastic to the other side seam. Then pin in sections of about 5” until you have covered the
entire sleeve/ garment.
2
Set your machine to regular stitch tension and length and leave at least 5” of both threads hanging out!
Wrap the thread ends around your left fingers so you will have a good grip on them! Now start sewing
with backstitching the beginning and gently hold the threads with your left hand and pull on your
garment with pinned elastic towards you.
While you are pulling from both sides your elastic should be gently stretched over your garment. Keep
sewing right along the pink dashed line, over the pins until your reach the end. Backstitch:
Done!
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