Also known as The Early Dinner Dress. I wanted to call this The Brunch Dress but the words seemed unwieldy in my mouth. “High-neck, gathered halter dress” didn’t sound appealing as well. I entertained the thought of using a name for it but I was stuck with Bettina. Don’t get me wrong, that is a pretty name. But there was something non-Betty-like about this dress. So I rerouted the name searching to something meal-related.

(Aherm, I shall stop rambling because I can never be as funny as Bethany when it comes to long-winded writing…)

The dress:

DRESS PATTERN: 

A – Half of desired width of hem of dress. The wider A is, the flowier your dress.

B – From under bust to desired length.

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C – Half of A

D – Half of A

Important: Cut a long piece that will serve as an elastic piping for the underbust of your dress. The width of this piece depends on the width of your elastic. Length should be A + C + D. 

E – Two inches

F – Base of neck to your under bust

G – Half of under bust + 10 inches. Add up to 15 inches if you want the top part of your dress to cover a bit of your back, too.

H – Desired length of strap. I suggest you go very long.

I – Desired width of neck strap. Mine was 1 inch only. Go thicker if you have a long neck (lucky you!).

Important: For the sides of the upper front piece, try to copy the shape of the pattern above. It doesn’t have to be exact, but take note of the curves. 

Note: Don’t forget allowances for all sides. Cut 2 strap pieces.

SEWING: 

1. Fold under and sew the sides of your upper front piece. You cut this on the bias so you can easily fold it under itself to sew the sides clean.

2. Sew the sides of the front to the sides of the back pieces, right sides together. You will make the lower part of the dress and end up with something that wraps around your body and has an opening at the back.

3. Mark the middle point of G of your upper front piece. Right sides together, lay it over the top side of the front of your dress. The middle points of the upper front piece should meet the middle point of A of your front piece.

4. At this point, you have the lower part of your dress under the upper part. Now place the elastic piece over these two layers, with the ride side facing the ride right of the bottom layer. Recap: Lower part of dress (facing up) + upper part of dress (facing down) + elastic piece (facing down). Sew (from the end of C all the way to the end of D).

5. Sew the other side of the elastic piping to the underside of the lower part of the dress. Insert elastic. Sew the back opening of the dress, right sides together.

6. Sew your neck strap, right sides together, but leave a 2.5-inch gap along the middle of one side. Turn inside out.

7. Insert E into the neck strap gap. Top stitch the neck strap.

8. Fit your dress. You will notice that the upper part looks quite balloon-y. Like so:

9. To prevent wardrobe malfunctions, we will tuck these balloon-y bits under the dress. Like so:

10. You will want to make sure that you tuck the sides in a way that the dress fully covers your chest area. Make sure that the sides are snug and symmetrical. For those who have smaller chests, find the points along the sides that meet under the dress. Mark these points.

11. Take your dress off, and hand stitch the marked points. 

12. If you are gifted in the chest area, you can tuck the sides in and hand stitch in place under the part that holds the neck strap in place.

13. At this point, you’ll have this:

14. Hem  your dress.

15. Done!

MORE NOTES:

1. Check out a previous post to see the back part of this DIY halter dress.

2. Your elastic should be two inches shorter than your total under bust measurement.

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LINKY LOVE: Tatertots and Jello, Mad in Crafts, Craftionary, Under the Table and Dreaming, Nifty Thrifty Things