Variations on a simple A-line dress for girls' summer dresses

A basic A-line dress is a very good starting point for many variations, plain or fancy. This year, I've used one simple pattern to make a 3 different dresses.

For more about how to ring the changes on a simple pattern, read on.

When it was still winter-time, I made a modified A-line dress out of tartan for my little Scottish grand-daughter, Jane. You could say this was variation 1, although the idea came from Climbing the Willow as a specific modification to her Basic A-line dress. She calls this the "Caroline dress". It has a front box pleat, and front pockets. I added the ribbon. Read more about this tartan variation in this post. 

This had gone down so well that it was an obvious choice to use the same pattern to make her another dress. [Sadly, the Climbing the Willow web site seems to have gone off line, at least for now - shame, as it had some of my favourite patterns. However, I have PDF versions which I can send to anyone who wants them. Alternatively, there are other A line patterns available.Or you can make your own (very easy) from only three measurements using the method in this Frills and Flares tutorial. If you follow this exactly, it will end up less flared, particularly as you go up the sizes - but really, it's up to you how much you flare it. Just make sure you do the back and front the same!]

The Climbing the Willow pattern comes in sizes from 18 months up to 5 years. For the red tartan one and the yellow dress below, I used the size 4. But I probably played with the length a bit, so the finished dress would be the 24" or 60cm that I wanted.

This time, I would be using a thin cotton. I love the print, it's little unicorns and rainbows on a yellow ground. As it was for summer, I didn't want to fully line it as I had done for the tartan dress. So I drew facing patterns, using the pattern to draw the neckline and armholes. You can see below that for the front facing, I more or less drew a line across from just below the armholes - a slight curve upwards in the middle. For the back facing, I made it more curved. But the exact shape doesn't matter, as long as you get the side seams the same length on front and back!

On the back, I cut a small slit in both the facing and the dress, because I thought the neckline looked too small to pull over the head. (To be honest, I think the method of creating an opening that I came up with on the next dress was actually a bit less fiddly, but practice makes perfect.) Climbing the Willow did create a tutorial for making and facing a back slit. Not quite the same way that I did it, because she had separate armhole and neck facings. 

First, I finished the bottom edges of all the facing pieces. I joined the shoulder seams on both the dress and the facing, but not the side seams. Then, before attaching the facing to the dress, I made a small elastic loop to go in between the layers of the little slit on the back of the neck. This was to form a button hole. I'd intended this should be on the right but as you can see, I got it wrong and it's on the left. 

I pinned the facing to the dress right sides together, and sewed round the neckline (including the back slit with the elastic in between). Lacking a complete opening down the back of the dress, in order to sew round the armholes, and still be able to trurn it right side out, I had to use the rolling method. This is very clearly explained in this You Tube video, and I couldn't explain it better myself. (It is the second method described. If this has gone defunct by the time you read this post, there are many other You Tube demonstrations of this method.) 

Then I sewed up the side seams, from the very edge of the facing right down to the bottom of the skirt. I clipped all the curves round the neckline and armholes, and oversewed all the way round.

You'll see that I'd made the base part of the skirt shorter in this dress, to allow for the addition of a frill.

The frill was made of fabric 9" deep by about 1 and a half times the bottom width of the base part of the skirt. I turned up a good hem to allow for growth, and zigzagged the top edge to reduce fraying. Then I gathered it up to fit the skirt. This shows what it looked like inside. The finished length of the frill was about 7", or about 17.5cm.

And here's the finished dress.

The next variation, for Rose, aged 3 1/2, was somewhat similar, but by this time I'd decided it would be less fiddly to make a bodice with a complete split, than to try and create a little slit in the neckline. I also decided I wanted to use two complementary fabrics. So, first I cut a bodice by using the pattern pieces and cutting across a little below the armholes.

On the back, which I cut as two separate pieces, I added some seam allowance. (See above.) I cut each of these three pieces - front, and left and right back - twice, so I would have a fully lined bodice. Here are the two sets, pinned at the shoulders ready for sewing. 

Then, I attached the bodice lining to the outer bodice. This time, instead of an elastic loop, I made a little tab - you can see the raw edge of this sticking out of the centre back seam. I sewed up one back seam from the bottom, round the neckline, and back down the other centre back seam. I also sewed round the armholes. This is a different method of sewing a lining in, in fact it's the first one described in the You Tube video mentioned earlier. After clipping the seams, you turn it inside out (or rather, right side out) by pulling it through one of the shoulder seams.

I made the skirt part slightly gathered, and attached it in between the outer bodice and the lining. This is slightly fiddly when you get to the join of the centre back, but probably a bit easier than the slit and placket affair I made on the yellow dress. You can see the little tab now. I attached snap fasteners to the tab and the bodice. (I should say that I had added a little piece of interfacing into the bodice just where the snap fastener would be to give it some strength.This was attached to the neckline and the centre back seam.)

And finally, I added a frill, as before, which for this smaller size, was planned to be a couple of inches shorter than on the yellow dress.  Actually, this was very nearly a disaster. I had cut and partially hemmed a frill using all I had left of the blue floral fabric, but as I was trimming the back seam on it, I accidentally cut a hole in the skirt of the dress - oh no! Almost ruined. However, it proved not to be the complete catastrophe it could have been. When I looked at the cut in the dress, it was only just over an inch and a half (less than 4cm) above the bottom edge. Cutting this off would make the whole dress too short if I'd used the blue frill. However, fortunately for me, I had just about enough left of the rabbit fabric to cut a new longer than planned frill. Hopefully, I've learned my lesson - never cut anything unless you are sure the table beneath it is clear! 

Rose loves it! For once, she even stood (fairly) still to be photographed in her new dress. (Here, over a pink T shirt, as she's in the locker room of the local swimming pool.)