BERNINA Corporate Blog -Are you invited to a wedding, a big birthday party or the opera this summer? Then these sewing instructions are for you! We are sewing a beautiful dress with a tiered skirt – the “Stefania” dress from the inspiration Magazine 2/2025. In my instructions, I’ll show you step-by-step with lots of pictures how to sew this fabulous tiered dress. Let’s go!
Sewing a dress with a tiered skirt
You can find the pattern for the dress “Stefania” and many other great summer patterns in the latest issue of inspiration 2/2025. You can also buy the pattern for the dress as a single pattern for download here.
If you opt for the download pattern, make sure that the dimensions of the checkbox on the first page are correct when printing. Select the “Actual size” setting for printing and only print the first page to check the dimensions in the box. Only print out the remaining pages once you are sure the pattern is printed correctly.
Materials
- 3.4 – 3.6 m woven viscose, 145 cm wide. I used this fabric.
- 3.0 – 3.2 m viscose woven white, 145 cm wide. I used this lining fabric.
- Fabric interfacing G710 (Vlieseline)
- Forming tape interfacing (Vlieseline)
- 1 concealed zipper, 50 cm
- Remainder of thin cord, ribbon or similar.
BERNINA accessories
- Edgestitch Foot #10
- Invisible Zipper Foot #35
- Zipper Foot #4
- BERNINA Dual Transport or Three-Sole Walking Foot with Seam Guide #50
- BERNINA Overlocker, I used the BERNINA L 460
Cutting your fabric
Note: All pattern pieces are without seam allowance. Add a seam allowance of 1 – 1.5 cm to each edge, except for the skirt hem on the outer fabric. Make sure to use the dotted line for the lining on pattern pieces 23 to 25 – and don’t forget to add seam allowance once again! Transfer all markings to your fabric with small snips within the seam allowance, e.g. at the darts, the front and back centers, the diamonds, hearts, etc. You do not need to mark anything on the hems – we will create a rolled hem there later. Markings are therefore unnecessary here and would only get in the way.
The front and back skirt pieces are the same pattern piece. The dotted line in the skirt pieces represents the lining piece.
The numbering of the pattern pieces from 1-7 refers to the download pattern from the inspiration store and the numbering from 22-28 refers to the paper pattern from the inspiration magazine.
Note: Before you start cutting, please read step 1 in the step-by-step instructions below (ironing on the interlining).
Cutting the outer fabric
- 1/22 2 x front top piece
- 2/23 1 x each: upper front and back skirt panels, cut on fold
- 3/24 1 x each: center front and back skirt panels, cut on fold
- 4/25 1 x each: lower front and back skirt panels, cut on fold
- 5/26 1 x center back top piece, cut on fold
- 6/27 2 x side back top piece
- 2 xStrips for straps (all details without seam allowance): approx. 35 – 45 x 2 cm, finished width 1 cm. 3 x strips for tie ribbon: approx. 150 – 180 x 2 cm, finished width 1 cm.
Cutting the lining
- 7/28 2 x front top piece
- 2/23 1 x each: upper front and back skirt panel, cut on fold
- 3/24 1 x each: middle front and 1 x back skirt panel, cut on fold
- 4/25 je 1 x each: lower front and back skirt panel, cut on fold
- 5/26 1 x center back top piece, cut on fold
- 6/27 2 x side back top piece
Step-by-step instructions for the dress “Stefania” with tiered skirt
Step 1: Iron on the interfacing
Iron on interfacing on the front top piece, back center top piece and back side top pieces, allow to cool well. Place a cloth between the interlining and the iron to prevent sticking if needed.
Tip: For cuts with a diagonal grain (front top), first iron the fabric with interfacing and then cut it out of the fabric. This prevents the cut pieces from warping.
Step 2: Sew the pleats of the top
Secure the pleats on the front upper sections as marked in the pattern with pins towards the center front.
Carefully iron all pleats flat.
Topstitch the pleats on the sides with a large stitch along the edge inside the seam allowance.
Topstitch the remaining pleats exactly in the fold from the top and bottom edge approx. 7 – 9 cm each.
Step 3: Sew the right front/back pieces of the top
Sew together the center back and side back top pieces (left and right) of the outer fabric and lining.
Close the dart in the upper lining front piece. To do this, start at the open edge, secure the dart with a backstitch and sew towards the tip of the dart. Do not backstitch here, but sew over the tip. Leave approx. 10 cm of thread and knot it at the tip of the dart.
Close the right side seam of the outer fabric and lining top. Remember that the lining and outer fabric will later be left sides together, so sew the other top piece to the lining. The lining top is therefore mirror-inverted to the outer fabric top. Your finished pieces (consisting of the right front, right side back piece, back piece, left side back piece) of the top now look like this (right sides up):
Step 4: Sew the straps
Sew your two straps together lengthwise, right sides facing, turn and press.
Sew the open strap ends onto the seam allowance of the top edges of the front outer top, right sides facing.
Step 5: Attaching the outer fabric and lining
Pin the right front/back pieces to the lining piece, right sides together. Pin the left front piece together in the same way. It is important here that you pin the center front of the left piece to the center front of the right front/back pieces. Tip: Start by pinning the pins parallel to the open edge where the seam allowance will be later and do a first fitting. This way you can check whether the top fits you or whether you need to make any alterations before overlocking.
Then sew the outer fabric and lining of the right front/back pieces together in one go, from the front neckline edge over the top edge, armhole and the back top edge. Sew the left front pieces together in the same way, see red lines in the picture. Leave a gap for the strap at the back vertical dividing seam, see green line in the picture. The left side seams remain open.
Trim the seam allowances at the corners and turn the tops inside out.
Press the seam allowances into the lining and topstitch the edges on the lining close to the edge, leaving the opening for the straps at the back.
Step 6: Finish the top
Pin the center front of the right front/back piece to the center front of the left front piece and secure at the bottom edge within the seam allowance using a large stitch.
Step 7: Prepare the skirt panels
Braid or crochet an approx. 3 cm long loop (excl. allowances) from a thin cord or cut from a thin ribbon for a belt loop.
Pin both ends of the belt loop to the allowance on the right side of the waist clip of the upper skirt section.
Close the right side seam of the outer fabric and lining of the upper skirt panels, including the belt loop. Finish the seam allowances of the side seam. The left side seam of the upper skirt panels remains open for the time being.
Close all side seams of the outer fabric and lining on the middle and lower skirt panels. Also neaten the seam allowances of the side seam.
Step 8: Connect the top and upper skirt section
Pin the upper edge of the upper skirt panels made of outer fabric and lining together, with wrong sides facing. Sew them together within the seam allowance using a long stitch. The edges of the outer fabric and lining are now treated as one layer of fabric in the following instructions.
Sew the top to the upper skirt panel, right sides facing.
Step 9: Sew in the zipper
Note: This step will (soon) also be available as a short video tutorial on Instagram!
Iron on a forming tape to the seam allowance in the zipper area to strengthen the fabric.
Sew the lining and outer fabric together along the open side edges and neaten the seam allowance.
Sew in the concealed zipper with the Invisible Zipper Foot #35, treating the outer fabric and lining as one layer of fabric. First sew the zipper in place on the right side. Make sure that the transparent “stopper” at the top of the zipper is only slightly below the upper edge of your top. Sew only up to the marking as indicated in the pattern piece.
Close the zipper and mark the waist seam on the wrong side. Sew the second side of the zipper in place.
Close the zipper. Your waist seams should now be at the same height. Tip: Mark the waist seam at the zipper when you sew in the 2nd side. If you have trouble matching the seams, then maybe this invisible zipper tutorial with additional steps can help you!
SecureClose the other side seam underneath the zipper up to the bottom edge using zipper foot #4. Try to get as close as possible to the zipper seam here. the zipper ends to the top edge of the dress.
Close the skirt side seam underneath the zipper up to the bottom edge using Zipper Foot #4. Try to get as close as possible to the zipper seam here.
This is how your dress looks like now:
Step 10: Finishing the dress with tiered skirt
Clip the seam allowance at the hem of the skirt lining on the left and right, close to the left side seam.
Pin the middle outer fabric and lining skirt panels together at the top edge, wrong sides facing. Sew them to the upper lining skirt, right sides facing, matching the markings (center front and center back, heart symbol). Please note: I had serged the top edges of the middle skirt panel beforehand, but in hindsight I would only do this in the next step because the markings were not visible anymore and I now have two overlock seam at the same place. So please ignore it here in the picture.
Pin the middle skirt to the previously cut seam allowances of the upper lining skirt as shown here and sew in one piece.
Now neaten the seam allowances with your overlock.
Your dress now looks like this:
Now pin the lower outer fabric and lining skirt panels together in exactly the same way, left sides facing, at the top edge and sew to the middle lining skirt, right sides facing, observing the markings (center front and center back, diamond). Finish the seam allowances.
Your dress with tiered skirt now looks like this with all the skirt panels:
Step 11: Hem the skirts
Set the overlock to 3-threaded rolled hem, then hem the edges of the outer fabric skirt panels and the bottom lining skirt. If you don’t have the settings at hand, here is a picture from my instruction manual:
Step 12: Sew the straps in place
Adjust the straps to the desired length, pull the ends through the openings in the back and stitch them in place.
Step 13: Making the braided belt
Sew the strips for the braided belt together lengthwise, right sides together, and turn (just like the straps, but longer). Braid the three bands, knot the ends together and fray for a decorative effect. Thread the braided belt into the belt loop.
Done! Your beautiful dress “Stefania” with tiered skirt is finished and ready to make a grand entrance! I hope you are happy with the result. You can ask me any questions in the comments below the post.
See you soon,
your Linda
P.S. Feel free to check out my Instagram account and the account of the inspiration Magazine. There will also be a video or two on the sewing instructions for the dress “Stefania”.
You can find all my sewing instructions on the BERNINA blog on my Profil.
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