Saltwater Slip Dress Hack With Built-In Bralette

I thought of this gathered skirt hack after making my first version of the Saltwater Slip by Friday Pattern Company and I love how it turned out! I didn’t want to think of wearing a bra with this dress but wanted to feel comfortable without one so I hacked a built-in shelf bra or bralette out of knit jersey fabric. It worked pretty well and the process was really similar to the Hallon Dress I made with a built-in bralette.

In this tutorial I walk though the whole process of tracing out the pattern pieces needed for the bralette, how to sew it to the main dress, and how to hack the Saltwater Slip dress with a gathered skirt and tie straps.

The bralette hack will also work if you’re making the original version of the Saltwater Slip. I actually tried it out with my first green linen version (see photos below), but made a few changes to improve it for my second gingham version. (This gorgeous spring green linen is from Matchy Matchy Sewing Club).

Something to keep in mind with the built-in bralette hack is at the sides the bralette shows sometimes. On my second version, I brought in the side seams 1/4″ (0.6 cm) and this helped a little. Also washing and drying the dress helps to settle the stitches and “shrink up” the bias binding at the underarm. If you end up trying this hack I would love to know how it goes or if you tried something different to help with this!

When making this dress hack, it reminded me of the square neck tank dress hack I made and the process is really similar! My other articles How To Sew a Gathered Skirt to a Bodice, How to Sew Inseam Pockets and Tips For Sewing With Knit Fabric may also help you out along the way.

Let’s get staretd! Here’s a Table Of Contents if you want to skip around to certain steps.

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Some Things You’ll Need

• Fabric for dress – I’m using a linen (details below).
• Knit fabric for bralette – See details below
• Elastic in your desired width – I used this 3/8″ knitted elastic from Wawak.
• Paper for tracing pattern pieces on
• Ruler – I use this 6″x24″ Omnigrid ruler for everything
• Fabric scissors
• Pins
• Coordianting thread
• Jersey/ballpoint or stretch needles (for sewing with knit fabric)

I used a gingham linen fabric from Fluid + Drape for my dress hack and I love the quality and feel of this linen! If you find something you like, you can use the code ‘bethanylynnemakes’ for 15% off your order. 🙂

For the bralette fabric, you’ll want something with a good amount of stretch recovery so that it stays in place and provides plenty of support. For my example I used a cotton modal jersey from Stylemaker Fabrics, but I also love this valencia cotton jersey from Lyrical Fabrics.

Step 1: Prepare Bralette Pattern Pieces

First step is to prepare your pattern pieces for the built-in bralette. Take the Saltwater Slip pattern pieces and trace along the top of the front and back pieces on to your tracing paper (I’m just using printer paper). You’ll then want to figure out how long you want your bralette to be and draw a straight line across from center front/back to side seam. The length of the bralette will depend on your bust size and/or personal preferences.

Front Piece

For my first version, I tried cutting the bralette 6″ down from the center front but ended up extending it an inch to 7″ for my second version, which worked out much better. If you have a larger bust, you may want the bralette longer to accommodate (for reference my bust measurement is 34″). I suggest making it longer than you think because it’s easy to shorten it later.

Don’t forget about seam allowance at the bottom for elastic! I’m using 3/8″ (1 cm) wide elastic in my example, but if you want wider elastic you’ll need to add that seam allowance to the bottom (the elastic is just folded up once).

Back Piece

The trickier part is figuring out the length of the back bralette piece because the back of the dress sits lower than the front. The center back length of my back bralette piece ended up measuring 3.5″. Since the front piece has a bust dart, you’ll need to close up the dart to measure the side seam length and match it to the back’s side seam. I just did this with my pattern piece by closing up the dart as best I could and measured the side seam.

You may find it easier to figure out the front bralette length, cut it out in your fabric, close up the dart and then work on the back bralette piece. Or, just make it longer than you think and match up the lengths later. 🙂

The back piece of the Saltwater Slip is cut in two pieces, so if you don’t want a back seam on your bralette, take out the seam allowance from the center back (3/8″ or 1 cm) and cut out on the fold.

Taper Sides of Bralette Pattern Pieces

Once you have the length figured out for your bralette piece, it’s time to do a little bit of math and figure out the bottom circumference of the bralette. We’ll be figuring out the circumference based on your waist measurement so that the bralette sits snug against your body.

You want the total bottom edge measurement of the bralette to match your waist measurement so take your waist measurement and divide it by 4 (since the bralette pattern pieces are cut on the fold). This will be the width of the bottom of the bralette pattern pieces that the side seams will taper down to.

For example, my waist measurement is 29.5″. So I divided that by 4 to get 7.375. To make the math easier, I rounded up to 7.5 and marked that measurement on the pattern piece, starting from the center front/back (see photos below).

You then need to taper the side seam down to the width measurement you just figured out, making sure to leave the top edge as is. The back bralette pattern piece is easier, you just draw a gradual line from the underarm to the bralette hem (see photos below).

On the front bralette pattern piece, I closed up the dart before drawing the new side seam line down to the bralette hem. I then redrew the dart notch line – this also shortens the dart (see photos below).

At this point you can double check that the side seams match up by laying the bralette pattern pieces on top of each other and make any changes if you need to.

Now that you have your finished bralette pattern pieces, it’s time to cut them out!

Step 2: Sew Bralette

Cut out the bralette from your chosen fabric. I’m using a cotton modal jersey which has a good amount of stretch recovery that makes it perfect for a bralette.

Sew the darts closed on your bralette and press seam allowance down. I used a narrow zigzag stitch for this (width 1 and length 2).

Then sew the side seams of the bralette with a 3/8″ (1 cm) seam allowance – I used my serger for this – and press seams to the back.

Keep the bralette with wrong sides out and it’s ready to be sewn into the dress!

Step 3: Cut Out Dress Pieces

If you’re making the original Saltwater Slip dress, cut out the pieces as usual from your chosen fabric. For the dress hack with tie straps, you need a couple of different pieces which I talk about below.

Bodice Pieces

For the dress hack, decide how long you want the bodice. I started by shortening the bodice at the waist notch (the top notch), added 3/8″ (1 cm) for seam allowance and then cut a straight line across. This should have the skirt hit at about your natural waist. Later on, I ended up cutting 2″ off the bodice length to have the skirt start above my natural waist (I would maybe do a little less than this on another version).

I didn’t want a seam at the back, so I removed the seam allowance at center back by folding under the pattern piece 3/8″ (1 cm) (see photo below).

*If you’re making the original Saltwater Slip dress, leaving the center back seam won’t interfere with the built-in bralette hack at all.

Strap & Front Binding Pieces

For the tie strap hack, I used the existing Strap Binding Pieces, but cut 4 total instead of 2. I knew that the back straps would end up longer than the front straps and I would need to cut some off – I ended up cutting 10″ off the back straps. I also knew that I didn’t want long straps “tails” hanging down, so the front strap length ended up a good length for me (a lot of this process was experimental and I was figuring it out as I went).

If you want more length in the straps, you may want to cut an extra Strap Binding Piece to have more to work with – and you can always cut off length later.

You’ll also need one Front Binding Piece cut out.

Skirt Panels

To figure out the skirt panel dimensions, I measured the bottom edge of the bodice piece, added seam allowance for each side, and then multiplied by 1.5. (This is really similar to how I made my Square Neck Tank Dress Hack).

So in my example, the bodice width was 20.5″, plus 3/4″ seam allowance (3/8″ on each side seam) which came to 21.75″. I multiplied 21.75″ x 1.5 to get 31.8 which I rounded to 32″ for easy measuring. This is the width of one skirt panel – you will need two for the front and back skirt.

I used the gingham pattern to my advantage and cut along the lines so my final skirt width ended up at 32.5″. I wanted a longer skirt so I cut the panel length at 35″. So my final skirt panel measurements were 32.5″ wide by 35″ long.

Pockets

I wanted pockets in my dress so I borrowed a pocket pattern piece from another dress pattern and cut out 4 from my fabric.

Now it’s time to sew!

Step 4: Sew Dress Bodice

Note: If you’re following along with the Saltwater Slip dress instructions, the order is switched around slightly for the built-in bra hack.

Sew the bust dart and side seams of the bodice.

Step 5: Sew Bralette To Dress

Note: If you’re making the original Saltwater Slip dress, these steps are the same as the dress hack I’m showing, but you will just skip adding a gathered skirt.

With wrong sides together, place bralette inside the dress bodice matching the corresponding front and back pieces and side seams. *You’re placing wrong sides together so that the raw seams of the bodice aren’t next to your skin.

Line up the top raw edges of the bralette and bodice and pin in place.

Sew a basting stitch (stitch length 4-5) all around the top edge of the bralette/bodice at 1/4″ (0.6 cm) seam allowance.

Step 6: Attach Bias Binding & Straps

Note: I am showing a different method of attaching the bias binding and straps than what is shown in the Saltwater Slip instructions.

Prepare the bias binding and straps following the Saltwater Slip instructions. If you’re making the tie strap hack, then the back straps are sewn the same way, just longer. Join the two pieces of strap bias tape together (or more if you’re making longer straps).

Front Bias Binding

Turn the bodice to the wrong side and place the right side of the bias tape on top of the bralette along the top front edge.

Pin in place and sew with a 1/4″ (0.6 cm) seam allowance.

Press bias binding away from bodice and fold it over to the right side of the dress bodice.

Fold the bias binding over the top edge and fold under the binding raw edge. Press and pin in place. Then edgestitch along the folded edge.

Back Straps

Take the prepared back straps and place them on the wrong side of the bodice (on top of the bralette) lined up with the notches. Face the straps down and line up the raw edges.

Stitch in place, backstitching to secure.

Back Bias Binding / Straps

Find the center of the strap binding pieces and line it up with the center back of the bodice.

With the bodice wrong side out, place the right side of the bias tape along the top edge of the bodice and pin in place. You will be sewing the bias binding starting at one side of the front bodice, along the back and to the other side of the front bodice, covering the previous front bias binding.

Press bias binding away from bodice and bring it around to the right side of the bodice. Fold the bias binding over the top edge and fold under the binding raw edge. You will also be folding in the strap portion of the binding that extends past the bodice – fold the raw edges into the middle – to form the straps.

I find it easiest to fold over and pin the binding along the back of the bodice and then fold in the straps.

Starting at one end of the strap, edgestitch together, then edgestitch along the back securing the binding to the bodice and then along to the other end of the strap.

Next, fold the back straps up and edgestitch them in place, sewing close to the top edge of the bodice.

And you have a finished bodice! You can try it on on this point to check the length of the bodice and the fit of the bralette. If you’re making the original Saltwater Slip dress then skip on to Step 9 – inserting the elastic into the bralette. For the gathered skirt hack, keep on reading.

Step 7: Sew The Pockets & Skirt Panels

If you’re adding pockets into your dress, figure out where you want the pocket opening on the skirt. To do this, I usually hold up one of the skirt panels and hold it up at my waist and pretend like I’m putting my hands in my pockets and mark where I want them. 🙂 For this dress, I placed my pockets 4.5″ (11.4 cm) from the top edge of the skirt panel.

Then place the pocket pieces and place them right sides together with the skirt panels with the raw straight edges lined up. Pin in place and repeat for all four pocket. Finished the seam, then press pockets away from the skirt panels and understitch.

For more detailed step-by-step instructions, head over to my tutorial How to Sew Inseam Pockets.

Place skirt panels (with pockets attached) right sides together and pin. Starting at the top of the skirt panel, sew along side seam with a 3/8″ (1 cm) seam allowance, around the pocket, and then down the side seam to the hem. Finish seams and then press to the front.

Step 8: Gather Skirt & Sew To Bodice

Next up is gathering the skirt panels and sewing them to the bodice. This method is the same as my tutorial How To Sew a Gathered Skirt to a Bodice so head over there for more detailed instructions.

Sew two lines up gathering stitches at 1/4″ and 1/2″ (0.6 cm and 1.3 cm) at the longest stitch length from side seam to side seam. Repeat on second skirt panel. Place the skirt inside the bodice right sides together and pull on the bobbin stitches to start gathering the skirt. Match the side seams and center front/back and pin in place as you gather the skirt to match the circumference of the bodice.

Change your stitch length back and sew the gathered skirt to the bodice with a 3/8″ (1 cm) seam allowance evening out the gathers as needed. Finished the seam, remove any visible basting stitches and press seam allowance up towards the bodice.

Try on the dress to check the fit and make sure the bralette is fitting how you want. You can also hem the dress at this point or save that step for last.

Step 9: Sew Elastic Into Bralette

The last step for the built-in bralette is sewing in the elastic. The elastic is used to keep the bottom edge of the bralette in place but also can provide some support. Depending on your preference you can use wider elastic for more support, or narrower elastic if you don’t need a lot of support. I went with 3/8″ (1 cm) elastic for mine and I prefer to not have it too tight.

Switch to a jersey, ballpoint or stretch needle since you’ll be sewing in knit fabric – I found that a stretch needle worked best for me.

Measure And Cut Elastic

Take your underbust measurement or just wrap the elastic around your body where the bottom of the bralette sits. Decide how tight you want it and add a little bit to overlap – I did about 1/2″ (1.3 cm). I’ve also noticed that elastic will sometimes shrink up a little in the wash, so I usually make it a little looser than I need.

Overlap the two ends of the elastic, making sure it’s not twisted, and sew together with a zigzag stitch (or your preferred method).

Quarter The Elastic And Bralette

Quartering is basically dividing up elastic or an opening, like a neckline, into quarters to help sew elastic into an opening more evenly. To do this, fold the elastic in half along the join and mark the fold with a pin or fabric marker. This will be the front and back of the elastic.

Then line up the front and back marks and mark the folds on either side – these will be lined up with the side seams of the bralette.

Next, do the same on the bralette and quarter the bottom edge, marking with pins or fabric marker. Line up the side seams to find the center front and center back of the bralette.

Line up the elastic right along the bottom edge on the wrong side of the bralette. This is so the smooth side will sit against your skin when the elastic is folded up once. Match up your center front/back marks and then the side seams.

Next, you will sew the elastic in place with a wide zigzag stitch (4 wide and 2.5 long) or serger gently stretching the the elastic to fit the opening (since I made my elastic looser, I did not have to stretch my elastic as much). If you’re using serger, disengage the blade or sew carefully without cutting off any elastic.

You can check the fit of the bralette and elastic at this point if you want. If all is good, fold the elastic once towards the wrong side. Sew right along the edge of the elastic with a wide zigzag stitch (4 wide and 2.5 long) making sure the fabric is smooth as you sew.

And that’s your finished built-in bralette! Give it a final try on to check the fit, and hem your dress for the finishing touch (if you haven’t already).

I hope you found this tutorial helpful or inspiring and I would love to hear if you gave it a try! Thanks for reading and happy sewing! 🙂