Versa Skirt Dress tutorial

Jessica, one of my wonderful readers, contacted me last week with some advice on how to recreate a dress.

I had just bought some striped knit from Joann's on clearance with the intent to make...something. Maybe a skirt. I didn't really know. After I got her email, I knew I had to use it for her dress.

So I came up with this...

And here is the original inspiration.

original source

I realize now  that I should have not made it so tight! Whoops.
1/14/13: I just re-did an improved version of this tutorial. I'll be sharing it this spring/summer. :)

Still I liked this dress/skirt so much I made another one:

This skirt/dress is really very simple. It only consists of two pieces and three seams!

Let's get started.

First, measure yourself.

1. Measure hip to floor to determine length.

2. Measure your waist.

3. Measure the widest part of your booty. :) I mean hips. 

4. Measure from your waist to the widest part of your hips.


Now you can shop for fabric.
You'll need a nice stretchy knit. It is ideal if it can stretch well against the grain and with the grain. If you do, you can get less fabric because you can use the width of the fabric and not just the length. You want a piece just a bit wider than your hips and as long as your hips to the floor plus about 20 inches.


I got 1 1/8 a yd. of  the green 58 in. wide knit and it worked great.

Now lay out your knit folded in half right sides together. I pinned my stripes so that it would stayed lined up from cut to finish.

Did I regret making that black dot in my fabric? Yes! But it doesn't show on the other side - phew - so we're good. 

You want the top of the skirt to be 1/2 an inch larger than your waist {1/4 inch seam allowance} Take your waist to hip measurement and mark where the widest part of your hips should lie. Draw a curved line between these two points. Then draw a straight line to the end. 

I had only a yard {which was unfortunately cut really crooked} which my hips were slightly larger than so I had to get creative with this. : /

Pin and sew with a narrow zig zag stitch which is great for knits. It will allow the knit to stretch a little at the seam. 

Now cut a piece like this. Just the width of your waist and about 13-18 inches long {I did 13 inches for the striped fabric and 18 for the green dress}. The longer this piece is the more of a bunched top you get. 

Pin and sew into a nice neat tube.

{Don't mind the scissors. They were weighting the fabric down so it wouldn't slide off my table.}

Pin with wrong side of tube facing right side of skirt/dress. Sew.

 This is what you should end up with. 

When you put it on, you just slide the seam in the back and fold over the top. Like so. 

Pretty easy. And really comfy. 

 And as the name implies. 

Versatile.

So...that's it. My versions of the Versa Skirt Dress. I hope this tutorial helps you Jessica!

Have a beautiful day!