{American Girl Tutorial} PAB Gloria Inspired Dress

Recently, I made Peek-A-Boo Patterns Gloria Party Dress for my daughter to wear for Christmas (I still need to do a review on that). I really LOVED how it turned out and still had a bit of scrap leftover, so I decided to work on making an American Girl® version of the dress so that she could match her doll....I mean what little girl doesn't LOVE to match her doll right?!?
***I would consider myself an intermediate-advanced sewer, but this really was very easy to put together!***

A few things you will need before we get started:

Liberty Jane Trendy T-Shirt Pattern (it's free!!!!)
Main- 1/2 yd. Stretch Lace
Lining- 1/3 yd. Knit
6"- Ultra Thin Velcro (or you can buy the wider and just cut it in half)

Do you have all that ready to go? Ok, let's get started!

1. Print out your LJ Trendy T-Shirt pattern and cut it out. Now, the tee is short sleeved, but on my daughter's dress I made 3/4 length sleeves, so I added about 3" to the length of the sleeve before I cut it out.
2. Before you cut your fabric, cut 2" off of the bottom of both the front and back pattern pieces (this makes it so your finished result is a high-waisted skirt). Cut out all pieces in your Main Fabric. Including a piece that is 20x7 1/2" which will be your skirt piece.

3. What I did to create my lining was, using the Trendy T-Shirt pattern, I cut 2" from the top so that will result in same look of the Gloria Party Dress. Cut out all pieces for your Lining Fabric, including a piece that is 20x7" which will be your skirt piece. ***NOTE. You do NOT need to cut sleeves out of your lining fabric***

4. Hem all 3 pieces of your top Linings by turning 1/4" and top stitching.

5. Baste all 3 Lining pieces to your Main fabric pieces using a long, but narrow zig zag stitch using 1/4" seam allowance.

6. Assemble your top as directed in the LJ Trendy T-Shirt Pattern.---> Here are a few pictures of that process.

7.  Hem both of your skirt pieces up 1/4".
8. Baste your Main skirt to your Lining skirt pieces using the same long, but narrow zig zag stitch.
9. Using a straight basting stitch, sew along the top edge of your skirt. Gather to fit the width of your top piece.

10. Pin gathered skirt to top piece and stitch using 1/2" seam this time. Finish your seam by serging or using a zig zag stitch. Press seam toward the top and topstitch.

11. Serge along the two unfinished edges at the back of the dress. Fold over 1/2" and stitch in place.

12. Cut a length of Velcro to fit the top part of your dress and a second to attatch to the skirt.
13. Attach Velcro to the inside of the dress on one side, sewing along all four edges, and the opposite piece of Velcro to the outside edge of the dress on the opposing side so that they match up. Repeat with second piece of Velcro.

14. Viola!!!!! You are done :) Make sure that you head on over to Peek-A-Boo Patterns and purchase the Peek-A-Boo Gloria Party Dress if you haven't already :)

When I surprised my daughter with the dress, so was SO HAPPY and EXCITED that she cried...it was so incredibly sweet!

PS. I also made Ruthie (her AG doll, a mini pearl bracelet and necklace with some 10mm stretch jewelry string and some mini pearls).

Do you have any questions? Please leave them in the comments below! Thanks for stopping by.

{Courtney}