I enjoyed an at-home stitch and bitch the other night with a friend who wanted to try out a little sewing project.

She was inspired by the myriad multi-way shift dresses in shops at the moment and thought she would try to make one of her own. I was invited along in official pressing capacity (which was fine with me – if my Mum taught me anything at the sewing machine it is that Ironing Is Critical).

Our goal was to make a simple dress that could be worn multiple ways. We took as inspiration the sack dress, originally developed in the 1950s by Givenchy, and more recently re-thought by American Apparel. In fact, many people are making similar dresses. Lucky for us, the fabulous eHow hosts a helpful little sack dress tutorial which uses an old t-shirt as a pattern.

As with eHow’s example, the sack dresses in shops these days tend to be made of a knit, jersey fabric, which lends itself to draping. However, this fabric can be a bit tricky to work with, so we opted to use a woven cotton fabric for this first venture into couture en bas. (Something we sort of regretted in the end!)

Preparation is everything

First – assemble your components: fabric, thread, and a ribbon or tie. We spent £13 on all of these. You’ll also need a sewing machine and an iron. Another mum tip is to wash and dry the fabric before sewing with it – this way any shrinkage happen will before you sew, and your finished garment will fit better.

This dress is so simple as to not even require any bodily pinning – just hold up the fabric to guesstimate how much you need; cut, press and sew.

Off you go…

Step 1: cut the fabric into two pieces. Measure or hold fabric up to your body to establish garment length and width; cut out two squares or rectangles of this size.

Step 2 – stitch your hem. Fold the raw edge of the fabric over and press; fold over again and press again. Stitch along the fold with a tight, even stitch.

Pressing the hem before stitching

Step 3 – stitch the sides down. Fold about a centimetre of fabric over (taking care to ensure you fold onto the same side of the fabric as you did with the hem) and then press; stitch with a tight, even stitch.

Make sure you use a tight, even stitch and keep the fabric flat

Now you have two pieces of fabric, a front and a back. Each piece has a hem, for the bottom of the dress, and finished edges along the sides. You’ll sew these pieces together along the sides, but first you need to address the top of the dress.

Step 4 – create a casing for the strap. Iron the top of each piece of fabric, pressing the edge over once, as you did with the hem, then a second time, only this time, fold over enough fabric to leave a casing or tube wide enough for your strap. Stitch along the folded edge, again with a tight, even stitch.

Measuring the fabric to stitch a casing for the ribbon tie

Do this to both the front and the back of the dress.

Step 5 – put front and back together. Lay the pieces of your dress flat, with the right (outside) sides facing towards each other. Pin the sides together from the bottom hem up to about six inches short of the top.

Now, take your ribbon or tie and clip a safety pin onto one end. This will help you thread the tie through the casings.

Step 6 – check the fit before you stitch the side seams. Carefully (you’ve got pins in there!) put the dress on and check that you have pinned it to the right height on the sides. If not, re-pin, and then take it off and stitch the two pieces of fabric together.

… and you’re done!

We found that the fabric we chose was too stiff, and did not drape as we would have liked it to. But as you can see below, the dress is wearable in several different ways:

Tied at the back, with an empire waist

Worn strapless and tied around the waist

Worn one-shoulder, with the strap wrapped round the waist

Worn with the seam at the front, for a plunging neckline

Final comment

Making this dress was easy and a pleasant enough project, even if it didn’t go entirely as planned. But as my sewing partner pointed out, this was just a trial effort to see if we could do it – which we did. And next time, we’ll do it in jersey.

Spent: £13 on fabric, ribbon, thread

Saved: £22 (similar dresses are £35)