How To Duplicate Your Favourite Dress | Get Thready With Me #8

Hello! It’s Annika. Today, I’m going to
show you how to turn one dress into two.

[music plays]

Today I'm going to film myself whilst I try and replicate a dress.

This dress, in fact.

I really, really like the style of this dress,
and after I posted pictures of me wearing

it on the interwebs, a bunch of you asked
me to make a tutorial for a similar style of dress.

But I really had no idea how I would make
this kind of dress from scratch, so I thought

then I set about first trying to “reverse
engineer” the thing.

And so this video morphed into a video where
I show you some methods and tips and tricks

for copying how you would go about replicating
or "reverse engineering" your own dress. Or

- I guess this could also work for a shirts,
if you don't wear dresses?

Anyway, let’s get started!

So, let’s talk about fabrics. The first
thing that you want to do is to find a fabric

type that’s really similar to the one used
in the item you’re duplicating.

The fabric in this pink dress is a light knit
with a small amount of stretch to it.

I’m going to need to use fabric which is
similar.

This fruit-printed fabric is pretty much the
same, plus it’s really cute,

so I’m going to use this.

Then, I scrutinized the insides of the dress,
and I figured out how many individual different

pieces of fabric the dress was made out of.

So, I got my dress and some paper to make
a pattern on – I’m using wrapping paper.

And… whoops. These two things have the same
exact pattern, so that’s going to be nice

and confusing for the camera.

I folded the dress in half, with the collar
flipped out of the way to expose this full

bodice piece. I'm copying the front part of
the dress first.

Then, I trace around the bodice. When I get
to these parts that are connected to other

bits of fabric, I use these pins to stab through
the fabric on the seamline, and into the pattern

paper below. This will make small, faint marks
onto the paper, and let me trace the proper

shape of this seam.

So, to recap, I’ve just traced half of this
front of the dress onto paper. This middle

triangle section uses a separate piece of
fabric to the main bodice, so I’ll be copying that later.

Then, I add half an inch of seam allowance
to every side of the pattern, except for here,

because this is where the pattern will lie
on the fold.

Then I cut this pattern piece out, and I do
the exact same thing for the back.

Then I add a half-inch seam allowance, on
all the edges except for the one that’ll

sit on the fabric fold. So notice here, that
where the dress was folded, that’s where

I’m then going to put “cut on fold”,
and where I will be placing the pattern on

the fold of the fabric. And I also make a
little note that the stretch of the fabric

needs to run this way – across the bodice,
just like in the original dress.

Now the skirt is just a gathered rectangle,
so instead of wasting paper making a pattern,

I’m just going to take the length of the
skirt, adding 1 inch for seam allowance at

both the top and bottom. And then I take the
width, multiplying by 2 to get the entire

front and back of the skirt, and then adding
a good 20 inches to allow for it to be all

ruffled and gathered.

Then I turn the dress inside out and I copy
this triangle – with an added seam allowance

of half an inch all the way around.
And lastly, I copy the collar, which I lay

on top of my pattern paper like this. I traced
around the collar, and added a seam allowance

to the outside edge. I added an extra inch
of seam allowance because these collar edges

are going to be sewn to something else twice
– so it requires two lots of a ½ inch seam

allowance. And I’m going to need 4 of these
pieces.

So, these are all the pattern pieces for the
top of the dress (and for the skirt, I’ll

just need to cut out a rectangle) – so,
let’s go and cut out some fabric!

So I use the pattern pieces to cut out the
front piece,

the back piece,
two of these triangle bits,

a rectangle that’s 11 by 60 inches,
and four collar pieces, and for this I use

a different, white cotton fabric.

Then the first sewing step is to place the
back and front bodice together, right sides

together, and I sew them together here.

Then I place the triangle pieces right sides
together, and sew them together across here.

Note that I’m using a zigzag stitch for
all of this, because the material I'm using

is stretchy. You need to use the right stitch
for your material.

I’m then going to flip the triangle around
and sew it together with the wrong-sides touching.

Then I gathered the long edge of the rectangle
skirt piece.

I did this by sewing long basting stitches
along the top edge, then grabbing the top

stitch, gently pulling on it, and pushing
the gathers along.

I adjusted the ruffles so that the length
of the piece would match the circumference

of the bottom of the top.

So basically, if I can fold it in two and
it matches the top, plus about 1 inch hanging

over, we’re good to go.

So then I flip this skirt bit over, and I’m
going to sew it to the top right-sides together,

with the skirt upside-down on the top, like
this.

I’m just going to pin the two together…

And it needs to get sewn on, all the way around.
Where the two ends meet up, they’ll also

need to be sewn together like this.

Yay, pretty!

Now, back to the collar, I’m placing each
pair right-sides together, and sewing them

together like this.

I clipped off the corners and the edges here
to make the corners look neater, and then

I turn both these collar-tube-pieces the right
way around. I use scissors to help me to get

those corners nice and crisp.

Then, I have a look at the original dress
to see exactly how the collar is attached,

which is like this – it's actually sewn
onto the inside of the dress. The triangle

also seems to get stitched into this at the
same time. So I insert the triangle where

I want it to sit. Then, after I check out
the placement of the collar pieces on the

front, I flip them over to the back of the
fabric, and I sew the three pieces together

all of the way around the collar.

I end up with this, and to finish this off
I sew these two ends together.

To add cuffs, I cut out a rectangle of stretchy
fabric that’s just a bit smaller than the

circumference of the sleeve opening.

I sew this into a loop, then I fold it in
half lengthways, and I place it around the

top of the sleeve, so that the raw edges are
all matching, and then I sew them together like this.

And the last thing I do is to hem the bottom
of the dress, simply by folding the bottom

edge up into the dress 1 inch and sewing across.

And that’s how I copied this dress.

So - let’s compare the two!

[music plays]

So that's it! That’s how I reverse-engineered
a pattern and made a copy of a dress!

So they're basically the same - there's some
minor differences in that I sewed the triangle

section a bit too far down, but because this
was the trickiest part of this project, I

really didn't want to redo it, and I think
it looks fine so I'm going to leave it as-is.

The back of the collar could also look a bit
neater, but that's something I can improve

on next time.

[Now go forth and duplicate your own favourite
dresses, in all different fabrics!]

I hope this video was helpful -- if you try
it out then don't forget to tag me on instagram

so I can see your results - just tag it with
#diyannika. Give this video a thumbs up if

you enjoyed it and I'll see you all next time.
Bye!