Sew Your Own Tunic Dress – FREE Tutorial

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Follow along with this free tutorial to see how you can sew your own tunic dress, the perfect historybounding look for all occasions!

In the past few years, I’ve done quite a bit of garment sewing, but mostly I’ve made historical outfitss that aren’t the easiest to wear for everyday occasions.

I’ve made complete Renaissance fair outfits for my family, and two different outfits for myself, and a 19th century petticoat and corset. This time, I wanted to make something I could wear in the 21st century. The perfect way to combine my familiarity with historical construction, and modern styles is a tunic dress.

Designing a Tunic Dress

The first thing to decide was what fabric to use. For the main fabric, I found a gorgeous dark orange fabric at a local thrift store that was perfect. I don’t know exactly what the fabric is, but a quick burn test made me think it’s probably a lightweight cotton. To add a bit of interest, I have some leftover fabric from making a giant dice bag that is black with gold stars. Together, these fabrics have a witchy look that is great for Fall (but no one will stop you from wearing it any time of year).

For the construction of the tunic dress, I stuck mostly to historical shaping, with the execption of the skirt, but used modern sewing techniques to make construction go faster. 

The design I settled on is a simple construction that uses rectangles for the bodice and sleeves. Because this is a tunic dress, there isn’t any shaping through the body.  For a dramatic touch, I decided on a circle skirt to get maximum swoosh. Of course, there needed to be pockets as well.

I love making this style of garment because patterning and construction is so easy! There aren’t even any closures to worry about. When it comes to wearing them, tunic dresses are versatile pieces. They are a flattering fit for lots of body types, and are great for casual styles, or they can be dressed up for more formal occasions. 

Tools

To make this dress, I used fairly standard tools for any sewing project:

• Sewing machine
• Needles
• Pins
• Iron and ironing board
• Fabric scissors
• Ruler
• Marking tool

Materials

Like the tools used, the materials list is fairly short as well.

• About 3 yards of a 60” wide fabric for the main color (orange)
• About half a yard of accent fabric (black)
• Black thread

Let’s Make a Tunic Dress

Cutting Out The Fabric

The first step, like any sewing project, is to cut out the fabric. To know what size pieces to cut out, I needed a few measurements first:

1. Chest circumference
2. Shoulder to waist
3. Waist to desired hem
4. Neck diameter
5. Arm length
6. Arm circumference
7. Widest hand circumference

You can follow this tunic dress tutorial using your own measurements.

Circle Skirt

The first thing to cut out was the circle skirt. To know what to cut out, you will need your chest circumference (measurement A), which is used for the waist circumference as well, and the waist to desired hem length (measurement C), which will be the length of the skirt. 

You may be wondering why I used my chest measurement, rather than my waist measurement. Because I want to slip this dress on over my head, I need it to fit over my bust. This will also make it easy to attach the skirt to bodice later.

Drafting a circle skirt pattern may seem a bit intimidating, but all it takes a bit of circle geometry. To draw your pattern, you need to know the radius of the waist you want. To find this, use this formula:

Radius = Circumference(measurement A)/2π

Once you know the waist radius, add this to the skirt length (measurement C). This gives you the full radius of the skirt. If you can get a full square of fabric that is twice this length, you can cut the skirt out all in one piece. If you have a smaller piece of fabric, or want a very long skirt, you may need to cut out multiple pieces. 

I was able to cut my skirt out in one piece. To make it very easy, I folded my fabric in to quarters and drew ¼ of the circle, using the corner with all folds as the center point. Then I drew a line the waist radius away from that corner, and other the skirt length (measurement C) PLUS the radius from that corner. When I cut out the fabric and unfolded it, I had a full circle skirt. 

Because I wanted to added side seam pockets, I cut the skirt in half to create side seams to add pockets to. If you cut your skirt out in once piece and don’t want pockets, you can save time on construction later by skipping the skirt assembly, your skirt is already done!

Pockets

My favorite thing about making my own clothes is being able to add giant pockets to everything!

You can make the pockets as big as you want, just make sure the opening will be big enough to comfortably get your hand in and out of! You can use your hand circumference (measurement G) to help you make a big enough pocket opening.

For two pockets, you need four pocket pieces, two for each side. If you fabric has a distinct front and back, make sure you have two pieces facing each direction.

Bodice

This tunic dress has no shaping, so all you need are two matching rectangles. These should be as wide as half of your chest circumference (measurement A) and as tall as you shoulder to waist measurement (measurment B). Be sure to add an extra inch or two for seam allowance.

Sleeves

Like the bodice, each sleeve is a rectangle. Cut out two rectangles using the length of your arm (measurement E) for one side and your arm circumference (measurement F) for the other. Then add another couple of inches on each side for seam allowance and ease.

I also added two 5 inch squares, one for each arm, for underarm gussets. This little feature, common in historical clothes, helps sleeves fit so much better and give a better range of motion. It is extremely helpful if you are like me and have large upper arms.

Bias Binding

Using a contrasting fabric, you’ll want to cut out a fair amount of bias binding. I made a lot of 2.5” binding that I used for the hem and sleeves. Then, I cut the extra in half lengthwise to get 1.25” binding that I used for the neckline.

If you’ve never made your own binding before, this video is a great tutorial for how to make a lot quickly. It’s a great way to use up small bits of fabric from your stash!

Putting it Together

Finishing Your Raw Edges

To make sure your tunic dress doesn’t unravel, you will need to choose a way to finish your raw edges on the inside of the dress. There are a few different ways you can do this.

The fabric I used for my tunic dress was very light weight and frayed easily. Because of this, I used French seams throughout to make sure I didn’t have any raw edges in the end.

If you aren’t familiar with French seams, it is a method of sewing together fabric where you end up going over each seam twice. The first time, you sew with a narrow seam allowance. Then you flip the fabric around the seam (ironing in between for best results) and sew a seam over the first seam, with a wider seam allowance. This completely encloses the raw edges.

If your fabric is sturdy enough, you might be able to get away with just pinking your raw edges. You could also go over the raw edges with a zig zag stitch on a sewing machine, or use an over locker if you have one. For a historical option, you can flat fell your seams by hand as well.

Sewing the Skirt

I started assembling my tunic dress with the skirt.

The first step to putting the skirt together is to add the pockets. Each pocket half was attached to each side of the skirt halves, two inches down from the top of the skirt.

Then, each half of the skirt was joined together, sewing the outer edge of the pockets together at the same time.

Sewing the Sleeves

Next, I got the sleeves ready.

One underarm gusset is attached to a sleeve at the top of the side that matches the length of the arm (measurement E). Then, line up the adjacent side of the gusset with the opposite side of the sleeve. This will make the gusset line up with the sleeve like a diamond. Then, you can sew the second side of the gusset and close the sleeve with the same seam.

Repeat this process with the second sleeve and gusset so it is ready to add to the bodice.

From Fabric to Tunic Dress

The last section of the tunic dress to put together is the bodice and join in the sleeves and skirt.

First, sew the shoulder seams of the bodice, leaving an unsewn gap in the middle that matches you neck diameter (measurement D). This will turn into the neckline later.

Once the shoulders are sewn, you can add in the sleeves and close the sides of the bodice.

Find the top of the sleeve head by folding the sleeve in half. The underarm gusset should be the bottom point and the top of the shoulder will be directly across from this. Line up the top of the sleeve with shoulder seam on the bodice. Working from that point, pin in the sleeve and line up the sides of the bodice.

Starting from the bottom of the gusset and working around the armscye and down the side of the bodice, you can sew this all in with one seam.

Repeat this process with the other sleeve.

To finish joining the bulk of the tunic dress together, line up the bottom of the bodice with the top of the skirt and sew together.

Shaping the Neckline

Now that you have something resembling a dress, it’s time to shape the neckline. There should be a gap wide enough for your neck between the shoulder seams, but your head won’t fit through.

To make enough room to slip the dress on, cut a vertical line, a few inches long, in the center front of the neckline.

Once you can get the dress on, you can decide how you want your neckline to look. With a mirror, you can mark out the shape you want.

Make sure the left and right sides match and don’t forget to check the back of the neckline as well. This edge will be bound with bias tape, so you don’t need to worry about seam allowance.

Then you can cut away the extra fabric, following the lines you drew.

Binding

It’s time for the finishing touches! That means adding bias binding to the remaining raw edges. The general process that I use for adding binding is as follows:

1. Iron your bias tape in half lengthwise
2. Pin your binding around the raw edge you want to cover, lining up the raw edge of the fabric with a long edge of your bias tape, right sides together.
3. Sew the pieces together, using a seam allowance that isn’t more than ¼ of the total width of the bias tape.
4. Iron down the bias tape so it folds over itself around the seam you just sewed.
5. Flip your fabric over/inside out so you are looking at the wrong side.
6. Iron the loose edge of the bias tape to give it an equal amount of seam allowance as step 2.
7. Iron the bias tape in half at the fold from step 1 so it meets the seam line where the other side of bias tape was joined.
8. Attach the bias tape to the back of your sewing using a whip stitch.

Skirt Hem

I started with the hem of the skirt, even though it is the biggest amount to bind, it was the simplest. Following the steps outlined above, I was able to get a binding on the hem fairly quickly.

Wrists

The wrist binding was a bit more complicated. Because I decided to make bishop sleeves, I first had to gather down the wrists of the dress with a running stitch.

Then I could pin it to the bias binding and proceed as above.

Note: If you make bishop sleeves without any closures or stretch, as I have done here, DO NOT use your wrist measurement for the cuff. You will not be able go get your hand through! Instead, use the widest part of your hand (measurement G), by the base of your thumb.

Neckline

The final binding is around the neckline. Because there are some tight curves, I used a thinner bias tape that I made simply by cutting my original 2.5” binding in half.

Going around the corners can be a bit tricky, but go slow, and work with your fabric, and you should be fine.

Show it Off!

And that’s it! This is a fairly simple dress, made to your taste and measurements, that even a beginner sewist can make! Its relaxed fit means it will fit, even if your measurements fluctuate.

If you wear it as is, it has a loose, flowing silhouette. To give it a more fitted look, you can pair it with a belt (which is my favorite way to wear it).

I hope you make your own tunic dress!

If you want to see more sewing adventures, click here.

What kind of fabric would you use for a tunic dress? Let me know in the comments below!