Easiest Sundress Ever - Pre-smocked Dress Tutorial

I love summer dresses. It's nice to be able to have some comfortable and affordable dresses for the summer. For beginning sewers, this is a great first dress that is hard to get wrong! Most fabric stores sell pre-smocked fabric. Pre-smocked fabric is when the elastic that goes across the chest is already sewn into the fabric. I paid about $8 for this fabric on sale at Joanne's. It is not cheap, so look for coupons or sales. I let my daughter pick it out and of course, she choose the princess pattern. They have many Disney fabrics that are pre-smocked and other generic patterns that look great. I made my daughter and myself matching floral ones for Hawaii. They looked amazing! We wore them to a luau. I couldn't find any pre-smocked fabric in downtown LA. I guess they only sell to serious seamstresses!

Take a chest measurement and add 1" to determine the width you should cut your dress. Cut the dress this width and put right sides together, placing the two raw edges next to each other. Sew the 2 sides together using a 1/2" seam allowance. Finish the raw edge.

I like to put straps on these dresses, especially for young girls. They run and play so much, I don't want her to have to keep pulling it up. I used ribbon straps on this one to keep it easy, plus, I already had the matching purple ribbon. You can also take extra fabric and make straps from the fabric. I usually attach the straps by hand.

I didn't hem up the bottom of this dress because it already had a decent hem. If yours doesn't, hem the bottom. You can also add cute ribbon or trim to the bottom.

And that's it. I wonderful dress for summer!