Sporty Jersey Dress with Elegant Tulle Overdress

Difficulty level Intermediate
Time to Complete Weekend
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Sporty jersey dress with elegant tulle overdress

This layered-look dress will have you perfectly turned out for both day and night-time: the chic, sporty jersey dress carries you through the day, while the addition of the tulle overdress makes the outfit instantly evening-worthy.

The best part is that the tulle dress will fit in any handbag, and slips over the underdress in a matter of seconds. Practical, attractive, versatile and speedy — a dress to fall in love with!  

Jersey dress

Materials

  • 1.2 m each of grey and pink jersey fabric (1.4 m wide) 
  • 0.4 m red jersey fabric 
  • Iron-on Vilene for facings 
  • Overlocking thread and woolly nylon thread in black 
  • BERNINA overlocker (e.g. L 450 / L 460 / L 220) 
  • BERNINA sewing machine

Cutting out
(N.B.: Seam and hem allowances are not included, so must be added on)

Tip: It’s best to lay the jersey out flat on a cutting mat and to cut it out directly with a rotary cutter with seam allowances of 1 cm and a hem allowance of 4 cm.

Pink jersey fabric:
  1. 1x centre front (to fabric fold)
  2. 1x centre back (to fabric fold)
  3. 1x front facing (to fabric fold)
  4. 1x right back facing
  5. 1x left back facing
Grey jersey fabric:
  1. 2x side front
  2. 2x side back
Red jersey fabric:
  1. 4x side inserts, bottom
  2. 2x side inserts, front
  3. 2x side inserts, back
     
Instructions

Sewing dividing seams:
  1. Set up overlocker for a wide 3-thread flatlock (left needle).
  2. Use a woolly nylon thread in the upper looper. With the flatlock, the fabric pieces are placed wrong-sides-together and sewn, then pulled apart to yield a flat seam.
  3. Sew the two side-front sections to the centre-front section in this way. Next, sew the red inserts to the top and bottom of the front section. The grey sections are on top in each case.
  4. Sew together the back sections in the same way, but leave the dividing seam of the centre-back and right-side sections open.
  5. Place front and back together with right sides facing and close the shoulder seams with the 3-thread overlock.
Facings:
  1. Iron Vilene onto facings and let cool thoroughly.
  2. Sew front and back facings together at the shoulder seam with the 3-thread overlock.
  3. Place facing on dress right-sides-together and pin together along the armholes and neckline. Sew facing and dress together along the armholes with the 3-thread overlock. Sew facing to neckline also. Rather than sewing the facing here completely closed, leave about 5 cm open on both sides so that the still-open dividing seam in the back can be closed later.
  4. Turn facing inwards.
  5. Place seam allowances of armhole edges in the facing and edgestitch as far as possible with the sewing machine and a straightstitch.
  6. Close the side seams with the 4-thread overlock stitch, closing the side seams of the facing in the same operation.
  7. Close the still-open seam of the back facings with the 3-thread overlock.
  8. Neaten the inside edge of the facing, also with the 3-thread overlock.
Finish dress:
  1. Close the still-open dividing seam in the back with the 3-thread flatlock.
  2. Sew the facing to this still-open spot on the dress. $
  3. Place seam allowances of neckline in the facing and edgestitch with the sewing machine and a straightstitch.
  4. Turn hem under and sew with the coverstitch.
  5. Alternatively, the hems can be sewn with a twin needle and the sewing machine.

Tulle dress

Tulle dress

Materials

  • 1.5 m stretch tulle in black (transparent) 
  • 3 m narrow elastic 
  • 2 m elastic binding for neckline and armholes 
  • Overlocking thread in pink and black
Cutting out
(Note: Seam and hem allowances must be added on)
  1. 1x front
  2. 1x back
Roughly cut out the tulle, allowing sufficient fabric for the gathering. Fabric is gathered and elastic is sewn on before the fabric is cut out as per the pattern.

Instructions

Gathering the fabric / sewing on the elastic:
  1. Place the paper pattern in its original size on a flat surface.
  2. Pin the elastic on the paper pattern: on the back section, one piece of elastic on the centre back; on the front section, two pieces of elastic inside the centre front.
  3. Place the tulle fabric on the paper pattern, distributing the fabric length over the length of the pattern. Mark the position of the elastic and that of the side seams with a light-coloured thread.
  4. Remove tulle fabric. To gather the fabric, sew to the right and left of the thread marks with the sewing machine and a straighstitch of maximum length.
  5. Place tulle fabric back on paper pattern. Hold lower thread firmly and gather fabric by pulling the upper thread. Pin tulle on the elastic.
  6. Remove tulle from paper pattern together with the elastic. Sew the elastic on with the narrow coverstitch.
  7. Place tulle back on the paper pattern. Gather the fabric and pin along the side seams also.
  8. Sew the gather in place with the sewing machine.
  9. Place tulle on paper pattern yet again and cut out to the final size, allowing for a seam allowance along the side seams and hem only (no seam allowances are required on the neckline and armholes, since they are bound).
Finish dress:
  1. Close the left shoulder seam with the 3-thread rolled seam.
  2. Bind neckline with binding. Use the narrow coverstitch to sew the binding.
  3. Close the right shoulder seam with the 3-thread rolled seam.
  4. Bind both armhole edges with the binding and the coverstitch.
  5. Close side seams with the 3-thread rolled seam.
  6. Turn hem under and hem with a narrow coverstitch.