Crescent Variation : Elastic Waist Dress
This pattern has been retired. See what to sew instead
You guys, you have no idea how excited I’ve been to do a Crescent dress variation! Ever since Megan first showed me the graphics for the new designs, a Crescent dress has been on my mind. And I couldn’t be more thrilled with how it turned out!
The Crescent pattern is designed to easily add a skirt to the waist, since the top portion ends at the waist (around the belly button). No need for any adjustments if you don’t want to, just add a gathered skirt, and you’re good to go! And Crescent is designed to be loose fitted, so to bring it in at the waist, I just added some elastic. Easy peasy!
Read on to see how to do this easy variation, and don’t forget to reference yesterday’s post for tips and tricks on assembling the crescent top!
1. This is your basic dirndl / gathered skirt. Cut two rectangles of your fabric (reference graphic above). Don’t forget seam and hem allowance.
Sew the two side seams together. Now sew your rows of basting stitches, using the longest stitch length on your machine, and leaving long threads at the end. Pull at the thread ends to gather the fabric until it matches up with the bottom edge of your Crescent blouse. Pin, and sew.
2. Measure your waist and subtract about 1”. Now cut that length out of elastic (I used clear elastic, but you can use whatever elastic you would like).
Overlap the two ends slightly, and pin together to form a loop. Mark off 4 equal sections of the elastic loop with more pins, by folding in half once, then twice.
3. Now, remember your top and skirt are already sewn together. Turn your dress inside out, so your top is inside your skirt, and your seam is flat. You’ll be attaching the elastic to the waist seam, right over top of where you’ve just sewn.
Those 4 pins in your elastic should be attached to 4 spots on your dress – the two side seams, center front, and center back.
4. As you sew your elastic over your waist seam, stretch the elastic between the pins to match up with the dress.
That’s it! You have a Crescent dress with an elastic, fitted waist! Simple, right?
Holly
Holly writes part time for the Megan Nielsen blog– sewing like crazy, creating tutorials and sewalongs. She has been sewing since she was a little girl, and has her degree in apparel design. Now she’s a stay at home mama, and spends all her free nap times at her sewing machine.
17 comments
I love this variation! It’s adorable!
Thanks hun! I’m pretty happy with it, myself :)
I love this!
So cute!
I just adore this. Thanks for the tute!!
Thank you, my dear! If you ever give it a shot – let us know! We would love to see :)
Gorgeous! I just adore the Crescent blouse. It has so much potential for variation and your dress is a lovely example :) can’t wait to make mine.
Aw, thank you! I agree – The Crescent pattern has soooo much potential to make it your own. Please share when you mae yours! We would love to see :)
Soooo WONDERFUL! lovely dress indeed! :)))
Thank you, lady :)
I really don’t like this dress!
The collar reminds me of cows udders!
Sorry!
Eeek so cute:) Love the colour too
:)
Aw, thank you Bec!
OH MY GOODNESS. I need this pattern asap!
Didn’t Meg do an amazing job with this pattern (and the rest of the new collection)?! It’s definitely unique! And you would do awesome with it, hun ;)
[…] it and prevent it from drifting below the waist. I got the idea from Megan Nielsen’s site. Here are some other shots of the […]
Thanks for the great tutorial! I used this technique with another dress tutorial for a maxi dress so that I would not have to use the casing for the elastic that she used and it worked great!