Make a Tulle Dress for a Little Girl

pattern for a girls dress using tulle fabric

This DIY princess dress will be the perfect gift to celebrate any occasion – photo shoots, birthday parties, holidays, or dress-up games with friends. Making your little girl feel like royalty doesn’t have to be expensive – it’s so easy to create your own princess costume.

So, here’s how to make this easy princess tulle dress for little girls.

Sewing supplies – Click Item to Buy Online

Dress Fabric of your choice
Soft Tulle fabric (We stock a wide variety of colours)
Lining fabric for the skirt
Sewing machine
Sewing machine needle
Matching thread
Sewing pins
Fabric scissors
1/8 inch elastic / 1/4 inch elastic
Bias tape

For the peasant top, cut your fabric pieces on the fold – you need 1 front piece, 1 back piece, and 2 sleeve pieces for the cotton bodice.

Skirt lining – 1 cotton piece – 13 inches long x 44 inches wide.

Tulle skirt – 2 tulle pieces – 13 inches long x 118 inches wide.

You’ll also need about 32 inches of bias tape and about 55 inches of 1/4 inch wide elastic.

PATTERN FOR TULLE DRESS

Step 1

First, pin the front of the top and one sleeve to the armhole, with the right sides together. Sew with a 3/8” seam allowance. Repeat with the other sleeve.

Press the seam allowance to one side – I skipped this step and it shows.

PINNING THE PATTERNS TOGETHER

Step 2

Next, align the back sleeves and the bodice back to the armhole, right sides together, and sew.

ALIGNING THE PATTERN

Then finish all the four armhole seams with a serger/zigzag stitch.

SEWING THE ARM HOLE

Step 3

Sew the top together at each side, matching the underarm seams.

SEWING THE SLEEVES

Finish and press the seams.

PRESS THE SEAMS

Step 4

Serge around the neckline and the bottom of each sleeve.

SERGE THE NECKLINE

Step 5

Let’s form the elastic casings. Turn under the edge of each sleeve about ½ inch and sew, leaving a small opening.

FORMING ELASTIC CASINGS

Repeat for the neckline.

Step 6

Fold the 44” x 13” fabric rectangle in half, right sides together, to create a side seam, then sew with a 3/8 inch seam allowance and finish the seam with your serger/zigzag stitch.

CREATING A SIDE SEAM

Change the stitch length to the longest possible and baste around the top edge of the skirt lining and gather it until it fits around the bottom of the peasant top.

CHANGE THE STITCH LENGTH

Step 7

To avoid wonky seams on tulle fabric, you’ll again use the longest stitch setting available on your sewing machine – mine is 4. Take one of the tulle layers and sew the side seam. Backstitch only at the end (this will be the bottom of the skirt), do not backstitch at the beginning.

 

SEW A LAYER OF TULLE

Repeat for the other tulle layer. Set the iron on the lowest temperature setting and press the tulle side seams.

Now, the tulle layers will be individually gathered. So, baste around the top edge of one of the tulle layers and gather it until it fits around the bottom of the peasant top. Repeat for the second tulle layer.

GATHERED TULLE SKIRT

Subsequently, place one tulle layer inside the other, the wrong side of the first layer to the right side of the second. Sew the two layers together.

 

We hope you enjoyed making this skirt & watch this space for more free tutorials!