Girl’s A-line Pullover Dress, Free Pattern size (4 to 10)

I have a new girls sewing pattern to share with you today!  A simple Girl’s A-line Pullover Dress, designed to be sewn with knit fabric, available for download in girl’s sizes 4 to 10.

A-line Pullover Dress Pattern

Pin the pattern here to save ==>>

Do you remember the cute little A-line dress I showed off in our Back to School pictures a few weeks back?  I finally finished the multi-sized pattern to share with you today.

This sweet and simple knit dress is an easy sew. No troublesome bindings, buttons or zippers! The dress is designed to slip over your little ones head and shoulders with ease. It even has pockets!

A-line Dress Pattern Details

This A-line Pullover Dress pattern comes in girl’s sizes 4 to 10. The dress pattern has a wide boat neck shaped neckline, above the knee length (which of course, you can always shorten or lengthen to your individual child) and pockets.

The sleeves are dolman style (so no set in sleeves) and the neckline is made with a very simple facing.

I consider the skill level needed for this pattern to be “advanced beginner” mostly due to the fact you will be working with knit fabrics, otherwise it is a fairly easy sew!

Fabric Recommendations for this Knit A-line Dress

I recommend fabrics such as medium weight french terry, or other medium weight knits that don’t have too much stretch.

In this version, I used a lightweight french terry fabric I found online (and on sale) at Funkalicious Fabrics (now sold out).  My missy loved the graffiti look of the fabric, but it definitely did not photograph as well as the chevron print did –  oh well.  (Instructions for the infinity scarf are here, boots here.)

The striped version was made from some sort of medium weight polyester-ponte-type knit fabric.

Girls A-line Pullover Dress Sewing Instructions

Pin the pattern here to save ==>>

A-line Dress Pattern Tips

• When printing the free pattern, first download the pattern to your pc, then open in adobe reader choose auto/landscape and print at actual size.)
• Seam allowances are included and are .25 inches unless otherwise specified.
• Hem allowance is .5 inches
• (pattern link is found under materials needed)

Tips for sewing with knits:

• Use a ballpoint/stretch needle
• Sew seams with either a serger, stretch stitch, narrow zig zag with a long stitch length or a straight stitch with a long stitch length and a slightly loosened tension. (Make a couple of practice stitches on your fabric to see what works best.) I also like to use this “lightning bolt” stretch stitch on seams that need strength but a little give. (I used it when attaching the skirt to the waistband).
• Sew hems with a zig zag, twin ball point needle, narrow zig zag with a long stitch length or a straight stitch with a long stitch length and a slightly loosened tension or leave raw. (also helps to use a walking foot.)
• If you find your fabric keeps getting pulled inside the needle plate, place a small piece of tissue underneath the fabric so the feed dogs have something to grip.

Materials needed to make the dress:

• Pattern (add the pattern to your cart and check out, it’s free and a download link will be emailed to you.)
• Up to 1 yard of 59 inch wide knit fabric (Though you will be cutting it close for a 10, so take care to not waste fabric.)
• Iron on interfacing (optional – you may want to use interfacing if using thin fabric. I did not need it for either dress.)
• Basic Sewing supplies

Products used and recommended in this post:

1. My favorite fabric shop for knits:  Funkalicious Fabrics, Fabric.com and Girl Charlee.
2. My Sewing Machine: SINGER 9960 Quantum Stylist, my coverstitch: Janome Cover Pro 1000cpx
3. My Serger: Brother 1034D 3 or 4 Thread Serger or you can just use Pinking Shears
4. Rotary Cutter
5. I love my large ruler and large cutting mat, but you may prefer to start of with a smaller Cutting set
6. Dritz Dual Purpose Marking Pen and Fray Check
7. Ball Point needles
8. Singer walking foot or universal walking foot
9. Wonder clips (I didn’t use these in the post, but they are just awesome!

Pattern tips and instructions:

• Download pattern and save to your PC.  Open the pdf document in adobe acrobat. Don’t print from google’s online version of adobe. (It will sometimes cause the pattern to print to small.)
• Seam allowance is 1/4 inch with a 1/2 inch bottom hem.

Fit info:

Size 4:   Height-  41.5 inches,  Weight-  36 lbs,  Dress length:  22.1
Size 5:   Height-  44.5 inches,  Weight-  42 lbs, Dress length: 24.2
Size 6:   Height-  46.5 inches,  Weight- 48 lbs, Dress length:  26.2
Size 7:   Height-  51 inches,  Weight- 60 lbs, Dress length:   27.6
Size 8:   Height-  53 inches,  Weight- 66 lbs, Dress length:   28.8
Size 10: Height-  55 inches,  Weight- 74 lbs, Dress length:  30.25

A-line Dress Sewing Instructions:

Step 1:  Print and Assemble pattern, cut out pattern pieces.

Save pattern to your desktop, open in adobe.  Set to print actual size and print pattern.  Align the gray boxes, edge to edge (don’t overlap) matching up colored circles. Tape pattern together and cut out size needed.  Transfer the pocket placement marks with a disappearing ink marker or pins.

Cut:

• 1 Front dress piece  (on fold) and 1 back dress piece (on fold.)  Don’t forget to transfer the pocket placement markings.
• 1 Front facing piece (on fold) and 1 back facing piece (on fold.) (If your fabric is thin, apply iron- on interfacing to the back of the facing fabric before cutting.)
• 2 arm binding pieces
• 4 pockets.  (Fold fabric in half and cut 2 pockets at a time <not on fold.>  This will ensure your pocket pieces will be facing the correct way.)

Step 2:  Assemble the dress.

Line up the facing and dress pieces, right sides together and sew shoulder seams.  (Indicated in blue.)

Line facing up to to dress along neckline.  Pin and sew using a 1/4 inch seam allowance.

Cut v-shaped notches into seam allowance so the neckline will sit flat.  Be careful to not cut into the seam!

Flip facing around and press.  Topstitch around neckline.

Fold sleeve binding in half and line up raw edges with the sleeve edge.  The binding will be a few inches longer that the sleeve.  Line the binding up so the extra fabric is equal on both sides.

Sew the binding to the sleeve using a 1/4 inch seam allowance.

Flip the binding into place, press and topstitch.  Repeat for the other sleeve.

Step 3:  Adding the pockets and sewing the side seams.

Line up the pocket piece with the side of the dress at pocket placement marks.  (Placement shown in photo below.)

Sew the pocket in place, using a scant 1/4 inch seam allowance.

Repeat for the other 3 pockets.

Flip pocket over and press seam well.

Line the dress sides up, folding the sleeve binding in toward dress as show in photo below.(Because the sleeve binding is folded in the finished dress, tucking the binding in helps keep it in place.)  You could choose to leave it out to give the sleeve a different look.

Sew along the side of the dress using a 1/4 inch seam allowance.  follow down the side and around the edge of the pocket as shown with the blue arrows above.  Make sure both ends of the binding are completely sewn into the seam.   Repeat for other side.

Trim excess binding.  Repeat for other side.

Flip dress right side out and fold the binding over.  Press and tack the folded edge in place.
Tack the facing down at shoulder seam as well.  (It’s impossible to see the tack marks in these photos, but I circled them for you below.)  Repeat for other side.

Top stitch along the edge of the pocket, on all four sides.

Fold bottom edge, press and hem.  (1/2 inch is included in pattern for hem allowance.

 

That’s it, you are done!

Now have your little one try it on and pose for some pictures!

If you make one of these dresses, be sure to come back and share a picture on my Facebook page or tag me on instagram!

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