Empire Waist Dress Pattern

A Cute & Summery Fit And Flare Dress Pattern

Hey everyone!

It’s been almost a year since I have written on the blog, wow! In the past year I started a business, had another baby, finished my MBA degree, moved to a new home, and bought a short-term rental property. I haven’t been spending nearly enough time crafting/sewing, but I am slowly but surely getting back into it!

I am so excited to share a pattern that I have been working on for a while now. This empire waist dress pattern is perfect for all of your summer adventures.

This post may contain affiliate links. View our disclosure policy for details.

This dress began from following McCall’s V Neck Dress Pattern, but I tweaked it along the way to create my own unique style. Truthfully, I had originally planned on following the pattern to a T, buuut somehow the sizing got way off and I had to improvise.

It is SO fun to create your own garments, especially dresses because they are quite forgiving if you make a mistake and need to get creative.

I knew that I wanted my empire waist maxi dress pattern to be flowy and bohemian.

This empire waist fit and flare dress pattern turned out even better than expected! It fits perfectly with a relaxed feel, but it still hugs the body in all of the right places. This is because of how lusciously full the skirt panels are.

You can never go wrong with a flowy dress in the summer! The deep V-neck is bold and daring, and yet not too scandalous. It can be worn to anything from a music festival, to the beach, or on a night out with friends.

The empire waist dress pattern is made out of a poly crepe fabric that has minimal stretch and maximum breathability. It hugs your body without clinging too tightly which makes it an extremely flattering fit for many different body types!

I wanted this empire waist dress pattern to be sleeveless. Of course you could make this V-neck dress pattern with sleeves if desired as well – the empire waist bodice would pair with them perfectly while creating a classy look with ease.

There are so many options when making this empire waist fit and flare dress pattern. You can choose pretty much any fabric that you want for this DIY summer dress pattern – from viscose to chiffon to crepe to knit, any one of them would look lovely!

I really hope that you enjoy this empire waist summer dress pattern!

(Quick sidebar: on the pattern packaging they call this an “easy” pattern, but I would not class this pattern as easy. I’d mark it more as intermediate!)

Here are a few different fabrics that I think would look amazing with this pattern. Keep in mind that different kinds of fabric will have different drape!

The fabric I used for this dress was this rayon crepe with a floral pattern, and the drape is absolutely perfect. There were a few other fabrics on Amazon that I was deciding between as well for this DIY summer dress, so it looks like I will just have to make a few more!

This gauze fabric would make for a light and breezy dress, and it has a simple summer vibe to it which I love. Another option would be this rayon challis fabric that is very feminine with pink flowers all over the ivory-colored fabric. Lastly we have an edgier look with this DTY brushed fabric featuring bold prints and dramatic black and white contrast – yep, still would look amazing in my opinion! Of course there so many different accessories than can be paired with this boho dress pattern too such as statement necklaces or hats for example! You could even add some fringe by sewing it onto the hemline of each of the skirt panels 🙂

If you want to start this V-neck dress sewing pattern yourself, check out my tutorial below for step-by-step instructions!

DIY Summer Dress Sewing Pattern | V Neck Dress Pattern | DIY Dress

This summer dress pattern can be made as a hi low dress pattern or a maxi dress pattern. With a deep V-neck and criss-cross back, this dress is perfect for date night or an evening out with friends!

Empire Waist Dress Pattern Supplies:

To begin with, you’re going to need to cut out all your pattern pieces. For my variation of this dress, I only followed the pattern up until the bodice was done and then I started improvising, so if you’re making your dress like mine then just cut out the bodice pieces for now.

If you’re going to use the pattern to make this maxi dress sewing pattern in multiple sizes, I highly recommend copying your pattern pieces onto tracing paper and cutting those out so you can leave the original pattern intact.

Your first step is to do an ease stitch along the shoulder for the front bodice pieces. Gather the fabric slightly along the ease stitch.

Then you’ll sew the front and back bodice pieces together at the shoulders on your main fabric. Press the shoulder seams flat. Repeat for your lining fabric (I used my main fabric for the lining fabric too).

Next you will put your main fabric and lining fabric pieces right sides together, and sew along the neckline as well as the armholes.

Understitch as far as you can along each side of each half bodice piece. This will keep your lining fabric from peeking out from under your main fabric (although in my case, both fabrics were the same).

Turn the bodice right side out. Sew a basting stitch along the bottom edge, connecting the two pieces at the bottom of the V neck.

Gather the front of the bodice.

Next, you’ll want to iron on the fusible interfacing pieces to their matching main fabric pieces. Lay the pieces together along the notches and stitch. Press the seams flat.

Line up your two bodice pieces right sides together and stitch.

Now, it was at this point that I tried on the bodice I had created, and realized it somehow ended up way too small haha. I cut out the pattern pieces for size 6 which is my usual size, but somehow I feel like the bodice ended up at a size 0… not sure what happened. LOL.

So at this point, a zipper closure was completely out of the question for this sleeveless dress pattern, and it was time to improvise. I have made several items of clothing in the past with a super cute criss-cross back (like this crop top sewing pattern) and so I decided to go with that style for the back of this dress.

Please note that from this point going forward I am no longer following the McCalls V-Neck Dress Pattern, so you can officially put that aside if you are making your dress like mine!

Now, continuing on.

Cut out a 1.5 inch x 2 yards looooong piece of fabric. This will be the tie for the corset-style back. Once you’ve cut this piece out, fold it longways in half right sides together, and stitch it closed with a 1/2 inch seam allowance.

Using a safety pin, turn it right side out.

Cut out another piece of fabric 1.5 inches x 30 inches. Fold right sides together and stitch with a 1/2 inch seam allowance.

Turn right side out, then cut into 3″ pieces.

You’ll use these 3″ pieces as the loops on each side of the back of the bodice.

On one side of the back bodice, fold the fabric in and pin the loops in place so that when you stitch down the edge it will be finished off.

Repeat on the other side of the bodice, taking care to ensure that the loops line up with each other.

Thread the 2 yard tie piece through the loops, and knot both ends of the tie.

Now for the skirt panels! The original pattern has you cutting out like 6 different panels for the skirt, which again I would not class as an “easy” pattern. In my humble opinion, an “easy” dress or skirt pattern should only have two panels. 🙂

You can make your skirt panels as wide as you want. The wider the panel, the fuller the skirt will be! My panels here are 48″ wide and the back panel is 36″ long.

My front panel is about 30″ long because I wanted to go for the high-low skirt pattern look, but just make your panels the same length if you don’t want to do that. It can be hard to perfect the high low dress pattern look when you’re doing it from scratch, so if you’re a true beginner I recommend just making your skirt panels the same length (whether that’s mini, midi, or maxi length!).

For the high low dress pattern look, I folded the front skirt piece in half and cut down towards the side seams.

For the back panel, I folded it in half and cut up towards the side seams. When you open the skirt up, this creates the rounded look. You’ll want to make sure that your side seams line up.

Next, cut out four pocket pieces if you’re going to add pockets to your dress. Adding pockets is a must, in my opinion. LOL. But you can skip this step if you don’t care about this being a pocket dress pattern.

I didn’t measure these pieces, I just laid my hand out and cut a piece around it. The pocket pieces can either be your main fabric or your lining fabric.

Line up one pocket piece on your back skirt panel, about 4″ from the top. Sew the pocket down. Do an overlock stitch on the edge of the pocket fabric to prevent fraying.

Fold the pocket over and stitch it down close as close to the fold as you’re able to.

Repeat these steps on both sides of each skirt panel piece, making sure the pockets line up with each other.

Lay your skirt panel pieces right sides together, and stitch. You’ll stitch down the sides, around the edges of the pockets, and back down the seam.

Overlock stitch along the sides once you’re done. This is a standard way to turn any dress into a pocket dress pattern!

Fold in the bottom of the skirt twice (about 1/2 inch) and stitch the hem.

Sew a basting stitch about 1/4 inch all the way around the top of the skirt. Do NOT backstitch either at the beginning or the end.

Sew a second basting stitch 1 1/2 inches from the top of the skirt. Do not backstitch at all for this one either.

Grab the top two threads from each and make gathers all along the top of the skirt.

Once your skirt is properly gathered at the top (it doesn’t have to be perfect), insert the bodice. Make sure the right sides are together.

Leave an open space between the ends of the bodice where you pin it to the skirt, because we will put elastic on the back of the skirt to make it fit.

Stitch between your two basting stitches to connect the bodice and the skirt.

Turn your dress right side out. It’s starting to look amazing!

Insert a piece of elastic that is cut to your desired size, and stitch it down on each end. Be sure to leave enough of a seam allowance to be able to overlock the edge later.

Sew the casing closed.