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Jamie Dress Sew Along: Adding a Waistband in the Back

Jamie Dress with the waistband in the back (I know it’s hard to see since there’s so many fabrics here, it’s the chocolate fabric with the pink flowers and green vines).

For the Sis Boom Jamie Dress Sew Along, some of you were asking on the Flickr Group how to add a waistband to the back of the dress (since the pattern doesn’t allow for one). When I made the patchwork Jamie Dress, I put a waistband on the back of the dress. I know it’s hard to tell in my first picture, since there’s so many fabrics (I’m working on another dress right now with a coordinating waistband, so it will definitely be more of a stark difference).

Jamie Dress without the waistband in the back (please excuse the bra strap).

I’m sure there are several ways to add a waistband to the back of the dress, but here’s how I did it. When cutting the back bodice, you can go ahead and cut the lining as normal. However, when you get to the back bodice piece, you’re going to cut it a bit differently. I used the front waistband lining piece (my back waistband was not ruched…if you want it to be ruched, you should assemble it the same way that you did the front) to measure off of when cutting.

When you cut the fabric for the back bodice, lay your front waistband lining piece directly on top of the back bodice pattern piece (as pictured below), with the bottom edges of the two pieces aligned (when I did this with the patchwork dress, I accounted for the 1/4″ seam allowance, but I found that the front and back bodice pieces sit a little bit differently, so when I make the dress again, I probably will not account for that seam allowance, in order for the seams on front and back to line up evenly). Make a line straight across the back bodice paper piece where the lining waistband hits it. Fold your back bodice paper piece at the line. Now you can cut your back bodice fabric and your back waistband (using the front waistband lining piece to cut the back waistband fabric).

So you will have a back bodice fabric and the waistband fabric for the back. Sew those two together, right sides together, and then you can sew the assembled back bodice to the back lining as normal per the pattern instructions.

Hopefully this helps. I tried to explain it as clearly as I could, but I know it’s a jumble of pattern piece names. 😛

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6 thoughts on “Jamie Dress Sew Along: Adding a Waistband in the Back

  1. Kim says:

    Thank you for that! I need that waistband!!!! This helps a lot :o) I will be getting my Swedish tracing paper out tomorrow, I am getting very excited :o) Thank you for doing this Sara <3

  2. Melissa says:

    You just read my mind! I didn’t post on the Flickr group— but was just looking at my bodice and realize that I need to do just that since I am using a contrasting fabric for the front waistband.

    Luckily, I had the same idea as you. Glad to know that I was on the right path.

  3. Sourkraut says:

    Thanks so much for this post! Of course, I had to be impatient and already cut my pieces out so I guess I’ll just need to trim a little off the back bodice piece. A shame to waste fabric but I won’t be losing much.

  4. Bree says:

    Oh, I didn’t even think about this, thanks for sharing! I’ll definitely want to make this change since I’m using a contrasting waistband & it would probably look funny w/out it on the back.

  5. This is great, thank you, Sara! However, I’m afraid I didn’t understand the part about accounting and not accounting for the 1/4″ seam allowance. Would you mind explaining that a bit further? Sorry to be a pest! Thank you!

  6. Becky says:

    clever. Great idea.

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