Shirred Mini Nap Dress-How to Make One Without a Pattern.

Welp, I’m back and shirring again. I promise I will write about something else eventually but for now, I’m coming at ya with more shirring. Sometime last year Hill House came out with the “Nap Dress.” It happened to directly coincide with the start of staying at home a lot so it went instantly viral. Its comfy but still “dressed up.” Its cute but extremely easy to wear. I’ve now made myself three, so I figured it was definitely time to make one for Maria too. This decision came right around the same time they dropped their “Tiny” nap dress….so clearly great minds think alike.

The basic formula for this dress is to cut out a rectangle of fabric using your model’s measurements as a guide. The width of the fabric is your model’s chest measurement x 1.5 or 2 (depending on how full you want it to be, how the fabric shirrs, the weight of the fabric, etc.) The length is the measurement from the top of the armpit to the desired hem length. Maria’s chest measurement (size 5) is 22 inches. I multiplied this times two and got 44 inches. It just so happens that this fabric is 45 inches wide so I did not cut it at all and just used the width of the fabric. To get the length of the dress, I measured from the top of her armpit to just below her knee (its about 25 inches). I knew I wanted to add a 6 inch ruffle so 25 in- 6 in is 19 inches. Therefore my rectangle of fabric was 45 inches wide by 19 inches long. I’m not including seam allowances in this to simplify things.

I then finished the top of the dress, making a tiny them by serging it and folding it over 1/4 of an inch. The next step was shirring. I did about 15 rows, spaced 1/4 inch apart. If I could go back and do it again I would do fewer rows, spaced 1/2 inch apart. After this, I sewed short ends of the rectangle, right sides together, forming a tube. After I serged it, that seam became the back seam.

When that was complete, I added a ruffle to the bottom of the tube (now a dress.) I sewed two 30 inch wide, 6 in tall pieces, right-sides-together on both short ends, forming another, larger tube. I placed three gathering threads around one entire long, unfinished circumfrence. After gathering these threads, I used the seam lines as the “side seams” and spread my gathers out in between them. After adding this ruffle to the bottom of the dress, I hemmed it by folding the bottom of the ruffle wrong sides together 1/4 inch (twice) and top stitching.

I then added the sleeves. These were similar to the sleeves found in my “Nap Dress Hack,” just child sized. If you all are interested, I can use my new found pattern making skills to create a pattern for them. I shirred the sleeves and added them to the top of the dress by finding the center front and back, moving outward 2 inches from each and placing each short end of the sleeve at that mark.

This was a fun, quick sew. One that I can’t wait to see her playing in the sand at the beach in. If something I wrote doesn’t make sense, don’t hesitate to ask me any questions. Hopefully this will help you if you’re trying to make one of these too. This garment definitely leans harder into the “art” part of sewing than it does the “science” or “math” part. If you’re looking for something to help boost your sewing confidence, look no further.

I will warn you that the first time I thought I was finished with this dress, the sleeve were way too long and the dress was far too revealing. I considered burning the dress at that point because it made Maria look about 14. If this happens to you, take the sleeves off and shorten them. Don’t burn the dress.

Hope this gives you some weekend inspiration! I was looking to create a dress similar to this one. These sleeves are super cute too and would be easy to replicate as well!