Paper Bag Round Yoke Dress Tutorial

What you will need to make your own pattern:

• Pencil
• Sharpie
• Large piece of paper, several pieces tapped together, or tracing fabric. I used a deconstructed paper bag. 
• Scissors
• Ruler
• A sleeveless shirt or dress that fits your child well. I used a dress that is a size larger than what the Princess is currently wearing.



supplies

 Lay the shirt/dress on your tracing material and use a pencil to trace the neckline and shoulders. If the clothing item you are using does not have shoulders draw a 2" line at a slight downward angle where the shoulders should be. Trace over your markings with a black marker. Now use the ruler to mark 2" from the drawn neckline in several places and connect the dots.



The yoke takes shape

Now flip the shirt/dress to the other side, matching the drawn neck to that of your impromptu template and trace. Only trace 1/4th to 1/3rd of the neckline. This is to create a overlap needed for buttons.

 Using your ever trusty ruler mark 2" from the drawn overlap and connect.

Yoke template complete! Mark a line or use the edge of your paper to help in the next part. Using the line or paper edge place your shirt/dress so that the line/edge bisects it in half  from the middle of the neckline to the hem. Trace the arm hole all the way up to slightly above the lower most portion of the neckline, trace the neckline and join the arm hole line with it . Next create an A-line skirt with a ruler to the length of your choosing. Mark a 2" wide band around the bottom of your skirt.


It starts to look like a pattern!

I marked the size of the pattern on each piece and how many to cut on each piece. I forgot to add seam allowance of 1/2" to 2/3" before cutting the pattern out of the paper. That was easily remedied by cutting the fabric larger than the pattern.  Cut the pieces out and choose your fabrics! I used 100% cotton fabric I had left over from making a dress for the Princess earlier this year.



You will need to cut the following:

• One body piece on fold, this is the back of the dress
• Two body pieces not on fold, but with the fabric folded in half  to give you mirrored pieces Front of the dress
• Two hem pieces on fold
• Two yoke pieces with out overlap piece*
• Two yoke pieces with overlap piece*

* One piece is to be used for lining to give the yoke strength. I used white fabric for this but you can use the same fabric as the main body of the yoke. If you do decide to use the same fabric be sure to flip the pattern or use the wrong side of the fabric when cutting the lining piece so that your pattern will be facing the right way when you sew.

Next I made my piped trim. I used some bias tape in a complementing color and some 1/4" rope I had lying around. I did have proper cotton piping, but I used it all on making the Twins dresses, so I improvised with what I had. I used roughly 3 yards of the piping.


Craftiness of a Crafter right there!

Sew the outer yoke pieces right side together, with the end with the overlap free. Now place the outer yoke lining face down and take the lining pieces and match them with their counter parts (overlap to over lap and so on). Right side out if using patterned pieces. This is to ensure that the lining pieces gets sewn together correctly. Sew the yoke lining in the same fashion as the outer yoke. Sandwich the piping between the yoke and the yoke lining, right sides together and sew. I only used the piping on the out side edge of the neck yoke. Leave 2''-3" opening on the inner part of the neck so that the yoke can be turned right side out. I used pinking shears to trim the excess seam allowance. This made it so I didn't have to notch around the curves. If you do not have pinking shears then notch around the curves and corners to help the yoke lay flat when you turn it right side out. Turn right side out and sew the opening close.


Should look something like this

Sew the body pieces right sides together under the arm holes.


Voila!

Connect the two hem pieces right sides together, then attach the hem piece to the body of the dress. Centering the hem seam on the back of the dress.

I took a piece of fabric that was the length of the neck to hem and attached it to one side of the front, right side together. I then cut the fabric to 5" wide and attached to the other side, right sides together.

You can make this strip wider or narrower, whatever you wish. I used my narrow hem foot and a zigzag stitch to finish the hem. How you do the hem is your choice, It was just easier for me to use the foot due to time constraints.

 

 

Attach some of the piping to the outside of both arm holes, leaving about 1/2 of piping past the edges on both sides of each arm. Fold the piping so that it is now on the inside of the garment. top stitch as close to the piping as possible, then top stitch a little further away from the armhole to help keep the piping on the inside. Now either gather or pleat the center panel on the front of the dress near the neck line. I pleated.

Top stitch to secure the pleat/gather along the dotted line.

The yoke needs to be attached now. Turning the dress inside out and folding the yoke wrong side out makes attachment easier. Find the center of both the front and the back of the dress and mark with a fabric marker that can be washed out. Find and mark the center of both sides of the yoke. This can be done by laying the yoke flat with the piece with the overlap on the bottom and folding the other half at the shoulder seam on top of it. now fold the part on top in half and mark the fold. Unfold and mark on the bottom in the same area that the other piece is marked. The part of the yoke with the overlap should be attached to the back of the dress so it will fold to the front for buttoning. Line up the center marks and pin. It should be right side of dress to wrong side of yoke, overlap side of yoke to back of dress and front of dress to sort side of yoke. Top stitch all the around the yoke, attaching dress. trim excess fabric with pinking shears. Turn right side out.

Mark where you want your buttons to go.

Sew the button holes, be sure to make them a little bit larger than the button and use a seam ripper to carefully open them. Now in the corresponding places to the button holes sew your buttons!

Trim all long threads and your dress is done!


The Princess enjoying her new dress.

If you have any questions comment or email me and I will do my best to answer them.

~Knotted