Draft n Sew a Criss Cross Back Apron Dress

This is a fun dress to make. The pattern is cut in one whole piece, bias-binded all around and turned into a dress by just sewing the shoulders together. Interesting, yes ?

The pink floral one is my first draft, the front looks like this :

My dogs keep walking into the shots, or sometimes they just sit and watch what the hell the lady is doing ??

Here’s the vid tutorial :

I figure out the paper pattern by measuring in proportions ( from the pink floral draped pattern ) . If you are good in drawing, you can free hand draw the back piece’s curves. Just find the underarm point ( smallest part of the back, it’s in the vid ) and extend to whatever shape you like. If you want to wear it as a dress, make sure the back panels are wide enough to cover up your bottom ! You don’t want to bend down and flash everyone XD.

The shoulder straps part was left intentionally long so that I can test how the criss cross would look like at the back. So after I cut out the fabric pattern , I assemble it at the shoulders, then adjust the length :

Here are a small compilation of criss cross apron dress I found on Pinterest. You can play with the length, width of strap , type of fabric to get different styles. Or if you don’t want to sew it yourself, some of them are sellers ! ( not affiliated , just sharing ideas here )

Enjoy !