How To Make An Easy Dress (For Cheap!)

Two facts about me:

I'm cheap.

I love dresses. 

I wear dresses probably 6 days out of the week. It's not that I one day just decided to wear dresses to feel cute and girly. Far from it. I spend a lot of time sitting at home, knitting, crocheting, painting. I also spend a lot of time in the car traveling across the country. I absolutely hate the feel of jeans around my knees.. Ugh. The thought of it makes me grumpy. 

Back in November when I really started Talk2thetrees I kinda just wore pajama pants and sweat pants.  I hated it! So I decided.. I should wear dresses!

Dresses are so comfortable, I can sit around the house and feel comfortable and cute. That's the best.

The only problem.. they are expensive! Now.. to me, 19.99 is expensive. I told you. I'm cheap. So I started making my own dresses, and skirts, for under 6 dollars each!

Here is a tutorial on a High Waisted Dress:

For under 6 bucks!

First you will need a ribbed tank top. 

I got mine from Walmart for 2.50

You could also use a t-shirt

3 yards of matching fabric.

Clearance section is my favorite. I got three yards for 3.00 total!

 Cut the tank top almost in half. This is really your preference. Depending on your bust size, and how short you want your dress. The shorter the tank top, the shorter your dress will be.  

(I cut mine a little too short.. oops!)

For the bottom part of your dress take the fabric and wrap it around your waist about 1 and a half times, and cut in a straight line. The fabric will come to you already folded, don't unfold it. This way you have kind of a bubble hem. You don't need to hem up the bottom at all, and the inside will look like the outside.

I never measure, I never use patterns... Sorry if this seems silly!

Next you fold your fabric in half. Remember it's already folded, so you are folding it again, creating a skirt.  Sew up the short side. (There will be four layers of fabric that you are sewing.)

You have kind of a big blocky rectangle skirt. Next open it up and change your sewing machine's tension so it will create the biggest stitches possible. Instead of sewing a waist band in like a normal skirt, you are just sewing a straight line around the two layers of fabric joining them together.

(You are sewing the raw edges, not the bubble hem)

This is where I didn't get pictures.. awesome.

We are going to create a ruffle. Don't do a back stitch when you start sewing around the skirt or after.

To make the skirt ruffle you hold the thread and scoot the fabric down. 

Make sure the skirt ruffles are evenly distributed and pretty loose. 

Turn the skirt part inside out so that the raw edges (from when you turned it into that big blocky skirt) are facing out, and put the tank top inside as pictured. 

Next you will pin the tank top and the dress together.

Once it's pinned make sure that the tanktop part of the dress folds out to be inside out like the skirt part. 

Make sure that the tank top park lays flat and the skirt part is ruffled still.

Make sure your tension is set back to normal and sew the skirt and the tank top together just under the previous stitches.

Remove the pins and the dress part is done! Now for the sash.

Cut a strip out of the left over fabric, about double of how thick you want your sash to bed. Fold it in half long ways so that the printed side is facing in. And sew up the sides.

Turn it right side out and finish up the edges, and you are done!
The sash is not actually sewn  onto the dress, it's removable and is just tied in the back. You could always use a regular belt or another coordinating fabric for the belt! 

This dress came out a little shorter than I normally like.
This would have been avoided by leaving the tank top a little longer.
This dress took about 30 minutes to make.
It cost about 6.00 total.

I now have three of these dresses.
They look good with a cardigan, and a pair of tights or leggings.

Yeah, Yeah I know I'm looking to the side an awful lot..
Probably making sure my pup isn't on the table ;)


Much better than buying one here.
Not that I don't like Delia's.. I just don't like paying a lot of money for something so simple to make!

I hope this tutorial made sense.. I've never done one before and honestly have not been feeling myself since the incident at the restaurant. I hope you understand. ;)

I hope you can save money and make something cute and comfortable!

** Update! Wohoo! I just added another tutorial! Check it out here!