Make yourself an easy knit dress pattern with pockets that is so simple and easy to sew, comfortable to wear, easily customizable and so versatile! Not to mention cute as a button!
Knit Dress With Pockets
As a pretty active person, I love wearing casual dresses that are comfortable but cute. This easy knit dress pattern with pockets is not only super easy to make but also fits great on any body type and looks so adorable with those little decorative pockets, the loose fit due to the front pleat and a slightly gathered sleeve. Sweet and perfect for all you girly girls out there!
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Since it’s made out of knit, this lovely easy knit dress pattern has enough stretch, making it perfect to wear when taking the kids out for play or when you run errands. The fold in the front panel nicely covers curves also making this knit dress with pockets look super cute while offering plenty of room for moving. The cute sleeves of this knit dress pattern feature small gathers in the middle, both at shoulder and binding area, giving this striped knit dress an extra dose of sweetness.
This knit dress pattern combines comfort and fashion perfectly and it’s a great dress up or down item; in size 10/Medium, is available to purchase here, or get it free when you join my sewing newsletter
Knit dress pattern
Materials:
- pattern for bodice and sleeve (in size 10/Medium, available to purchase here, or get it free when you join my sewing newsletter)
- 2,5 yards knit fabric with a good stretch
- knit needle
- matching thread
- fabric scissors
- optional – walking foot (if you don’t have one, just adjust the presser foot tension to a loose setting)
- measuring tape
- chalk wheel
- knit tape or soft interfacing for hem
- pins
- sewing machine
- pressing iron
Directions:
Preparing fabrics
- Print your patterns from here.
- Cut fabric: 2 on fold for front bodice, 2 on fold for back bodice, 2 on fold for sleeve. Make sure the most stretch goes sideways for bodice.
- On a large piece of fabric draw a trapezoid for the front skirt and one for back skirt as indicated below.
- When making the pattern for the skirt you should normally draw the sides a little smaller, about 1/2″ shorter than the middle. Unless your knit if quite heavy as mine the weight causing the dress to “drop” in the middle and this way the hem comes up aligned when wearing the dress. If you use regular knit that doesn’t lose shape when wearing the dress, make the sides 1/2″ smaller than the middle of the skirt.
- You should end up with 2 sleeves, 1 front bodice, 1 back bodice, 1 front panel and 1 back panel for skirt, 2 pockets.
- Take a long strip of fabric of 5″ wide, fold in half lengthwise and press (you’ll be using this for binding your sleeves, pockets and neckline so make sure the strip is super long)
Making the bodice & sleeves
- Place bodice pieces wrong side out and pin together at shoulders.
- Pin sleeves to dress at sides and middle only, for this step. This is to establish the middle.
- Make small gathers in the middle, at shoulder, pin and sew down. (alternately, use your sewing machine settings to create the gathers but don’t over do it; you only need soft gathers).
- Repeat for the bottom part of the sleeve, also soft gathers (this step doesn’t show in the video; I realized sleeve is too wide and doesn’t look fit and sweet without some small gathers so I took the binding down and added some later, complete nightmare so save yourself the trouble and do these gathers now)
- Completely pin sleeves to dress and sew down.
- Finish your sleeves with binding, making sure to the binding is about 1/2″ longer than sleeve, on both sides. With sleeve right side up, place binding with raw edged matching sleeve’s raw edges, pin and sew down. Press binding up.
Making the pleat
- Join front bodice and skirt front panel at sides and middle, fabrics wrong side out. This is to establish the middle and create the pleats. Using the middle pin as mark, make a fold in the skirt panel, to the left and then to the right, about 2″ on each side of the pin. Make sure the folds meet completely at the pin mark. Pin in place and sew down.
Attaching pockets
- Place the pockets wrong side out, fold the sides and bottom in, pin and sew down.
- Take a piece of binding and attach it to the top of the pockets, raw edges together, leaving 1/2″ binding allowance on each side. Press binding up.
- Attach pockets to skirt, with the binding allowance folded under the pocket. Sew down an X where the binding folds. Make sure you don’t sew through both skirt panels.
Finishing the knit dress pattern
- Place front dress over back dress, wrong sides out, pin along sides and sew down. Trim excess sleeve binding, as needed.
- Pin binding to the neckline, raw edges together. Make sure binding is about 1″ longer than neckline. When done pinning, open one end of the binding and fold in. Insert the other end into this fold and pin in place. Sew all around neckline.
- Add knit tape or soft interfacing to the hem (as indicated here) and finish the hem.
- Give it a last press and enjoy your easy knit dress with pockets!
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Linda says
Thank you for the free dress pattern and tutorial! Love it! The tutorial looks like it’s easy to follow! I’ll be making one soon!
Petro says
Thanks so much, Linda! I’m so happy you like my project, you just made my day! xoxo
Karen says
This a a super cute dress! I downloaded the pattern from Craftsy, but I don’t know the beginning size. I’m a novice sewer I’m pretty sure I’ll need to make it a touch larger. Can you at least tell me what size it was made in? Thanks!
Petro says
Hi, Karen. Happy to see you’re interested in my pattern. As specified in the tutorial, the pattern is in size 10 which translates to Medium for some. If you’re having troubles figuring out how to make the pattern larger, just use a t-shirt that fits you nicely and use the measurements in that t-shirt to make the bodice. Then adjust my measurements for the trapeze to match your measurements in the newly created bodice. Don’t forget to add a few inches more to your trapeze to accommodate the fold in the middle of the dress.
Barb says
Please tell me where you got your fabric from. I can’t seem to find nice print like that anywhere I need the fabric stores. Thanks!
Petro says
Hi Barb. I got it in my local shop, sorry I can’t be of any help. I’ll do a search and if I find anything similar I’ll let you know.