How To Make A Tulle Overlay Dress: Pattern-Free Sewing

Today we’re making our third item in the #UseUpYourStashChallenge. This one is fun, whimsical, and has all the ruffles. We’re making a tulle overlay dress!

In my efforts to use up some extra fabric in my crafty stash, I’m happy to announce that this is hopefully my last tulle sewing project for a hot minute. My extra tulle stash is gone, aside from a few leftover scraps.

While we are using familiar material that we’ve used before, I hope you’ll agree that the options are different and unique. If you’re interested in some other tulle projects, check these out:

• How To Make A Layering Mesh Top
• How To Sew Your Own Tulle-Covered Shortalls
• How To Make An Easy No-Pattern Ruffle Top

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Approximate time put into this project: This tulle overlay dress took me about 8-10 hours to sew, spread out across 3 weeks. However, I did take a 2-week break from making this after cutting out the skirt, so the calculation may be off.

Disclaimer: I am trying to teach myself the Metric System, I will always try to include both measurements in my tutorials, i.e. centimeters and inches, meters, and yards. Though I have been using them interchangeably in my everyday sewing life lately. I apologize if I miss including both or switch between them too often.

Cutting Your Skirt

We’ll start by creating the circle skirt, and with the leftover fabric, we’ll cut the top, straps, and ruffles.

To create a circle skirt you will need to do a little math to determine the radius of the circle to cut. For a full-circle skirt, you need the following:

• 1/4 waist measurement X 4″ ÷ by 6.28″ = the radius for a full circle skirt.

Make sure you give yourself a .50″ (1cm) seam allowance when cutting. Meaning you will cut the hole for your waist a little smaller than the number you got from the math above.

Take your fabric and fold it in half creating a rectangle, then fold it again creating a square. Where the folded edges meet in the image on the right, is where we’ll create the curve and cut the skirt waist and hem.

For example, if you had a 30″ waist, you would measure from the folded corner 4.7″ to create a curve that looks like the picture above. From the waist quarter circle, measure how long you’d like the skit to be, minus the height of the ruffle you’ll add later. Remember to include your seam allowance.

Tulle tends to get a little bit of an attitude when you cut it. There’s no way to mark things with chalk or perfectly pin everything. Try folding the fabric and taking your measuring tape, marking every few inches to create a line to follow with your scissors. Once everything is marked, cut out your circle skirt.

Cutting Your Top, Straps, and Ruffles

After you’ve cut the skirt, it’s time to cut the top pieces, straps, and later, the ruffles from the leftover fabric. I used up absolutely every piece of fabric cutting out the ruffles.

These are the pieces you’re going to need to cut:

• You will need four rectangular pieces for the bust piece of the dress.
  • Take your bust measurement and add 4″ (10cm). Divide the total by 2. Cut 4 rectangles this width by your desired height. I think an attractive height ends either at the waist or a little above. Add an extra 1″ (3cm) to your desired height to account for seam allowance.
  • NOTE: This dress does not have a zipper closure. If you’re worried about it being too tight to pull over your shoulders, cut it a little bigger. Once you try it on if it feels too big you can always take some extra fabric out.
• For your strap pieces, these can be as long and wide as you want, it’s totally up to you. You can have the straps tie in a bow at the shoulder or make them the exact measurement you need.
  • The straps that I cut were about 23.50″ (60cm) long by 3″ (7.50cm) wide. Cut 4 strips of fabric for the straps if you’re doing the bow method. Cut only 2 straps on fold if you’re doing the exact measurement.

When creating the ruffles and straps I recommend marking the tulle with the pins and looking ahead to the next pin as you cut. To keep long strips of fabric nice and straight, try cutting a portion of the fabric, folding it over on itself, and using the piece you cut as a template to keep the strip of fabric straight all the way to the end.

I made sure to cut everything I needed for the tulle overlay dress before I cut the ruffles. Then from the rest of the fabric I folded the tulle in half so I had two layers and marked the whole thing with pins. Cutting everything at once to save time.

Sewing the Top

Take two of the top pieces and pin them along the side edge. Tulle doesn’t really have a good or bad side, but if your material does, you’ll want good sides facing. Repeat this with the other two top pieces. Sew along the side edges to essentially make two tops.

Now would be the best time to try this on and make sure you’re comfortable pulling the top over your shoulders. If it’s too big, trim it down a little, pin and sew it again.

Next, put the two tops inside each other, lining up along the side seams. Pin them in place along the top edge. Make sure the side seams line up first before pinning. The side seams should be on the outside of the top as later we will be sewing it and turning it right side out, sandwiching the sideseams in the middle for a clean finish.

Before you sew these together, we’re going to want to make our straps to hide inside the seam.

Fold each strap piece in half and sew them together along the long edge and one side. Using a safety pin or your fingers, turn the straps right side out. Iron them so they are nice and crisp.

Line up the straps about 3″ (7.50) from each edge of your top piece. Be sure to have the strap overhang by at least .50” (1cm). You should try this on really quickly before sewing to make sure the straps are in far enough to fit you properly and aren’t falling off your shoulders.

Make sure that the straps are in between the two layers of fabric. When we turn this right side out the raw edges will be hidden inside the top.

If you are doing straps that don’t, you will need to pin the straps in place at the corners. Then turn the top right side out, trying it on to make sure the length is good for you. Make sure the straps lay flat and aren’t twisted in any way when you turn it inside out again.

Now you can sew along the top edge. Creating a clean finish when we turn it right side out.

After you’ve turned your top right side out and pulled the straps out, make sure everything lines up nicely. Because the tulle is so light, I recommend pinning the top edge again and top stitching to secure the seams in place. If you’re using a matching thread you won’t even notice the stitching, but it will help the top to lay nicer.

Sewing the Skirt and the Ruffles

Pin your ruffle strips together along the sides and sew them together to create one really long strip of tulle. Zig-zag stitch the seams to finish them off nicely.

Create a rolled hem along one side, pin and sew it.

Create a loose stitch along the top edge and gather it. Then set it aside until after we attach the skirt to the top.

Pin the waistband of the top into the waistband of the skirt. Sew and zig-zag stitch these two pieces together.

If the skirt and top don’t quite align because the skirt is too big for the top, sew a loose stitch and create the smallest gather around the top to get it to fit. Realistically you probably only need to take out a tiny bit, so this is tedious, but it makes sure the skirt and top fit together.

Measure the finished length of the bottom of your skirt and make sure the gather of the ruffle reaches this length or 1″ (3cm) longer. Then tie off the strings on each end and pin the good sides of the end of the ruffles together to close off the strip and create a loop.

Finally, pin the circle of ruffles to the bottom of the skirt and sew. Finish with a zig-zag stitch.

The Finished Results

I hope you love the finished results as much as I do! Let me know in the comments if a styling post is something you’d be interested in and I’ll beg my friend to put together some outfits for us!

If you decide to give this project a go, tag me on Instagram @doorsandfloorsblog and use the hashtags #SewingCat, #UseUpYourStashChallenge, and #DoorsAndFloorsBlog so I can see what you make!

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