pattern hack - 14 November 2025

Pattern Hack: Cheong Sum

Create your own cheong sum with Steph from Owl & I.

I love to use BOO! Spandex for our cheong sums. It is comfier, cooler and has an extra wow factor using BOO! Fabric!

I even impressed my hard-to-get-a-compliment-from Chinese mum with this one!!!

First, print or trace off your pattern pieces for the sleeved (or sleeveless) skater dress.

Next you want to raise the neckline of the skater dress by about 1.5cm to 2.5cm depending on the size you are sewing. An easy way to judge this is get them to wear a skater dress you have already made and measure how much higher you want the neckline. Draw a new curve to the shoulder.

You want to cut this pattern piece on the fold so you get a full front bodice.

Draw the splice for the cheong sum front (straight, upward curve, downward curve – whatever you like!).

The front bodice ends up as two pieces.

Cut out all your skater dress pieces but MAKE SURE you cut out the small front bodice piece with EXTRA fabric underneath to layer under the large front bodice piece.

Sew the shoulders of the front bodice pieces to the back bodice piece, right sides facing. You now have your bodice so you can now measure the neck curve so that you can create the collar using 90% of the measured length.

Create the collar piece (to be cut on fold) by halving the calculated length and 1.75” height. Curve the ends.

Cut a front piece, a facing piece and an interfacing piece. You will want to cut the bottom off the interfacing piece by about 1cm. You don’t want to catch this interfacing when attaching the collar to the dress because interfacing isn’t stretchy. Glue or baste the 3 pieces together at the top if you like to make the collar easier to attach.

Mark the quarters of the collar piece you have and on the neck of your dress bodice and sew the collar on.

Cut out a long strip of binding about 1” wide and just make sure it is long enough to go all the way around the end of the cut piece of your front bodice, all the way to the other side (I don’t even measure, I just cut excess off at the end). Overlock or sew right sides together at 7mm, fold it over and sew in place (see directions for sewing neck binding of the skater dress for the method).

Attach your two front bodice pieces together by matching up the side length to your pattern piece or to the back bodice. Pin the pieces together. Sew where the binding is to attach the two front bodice pieces together. Make sure to stop an inch before the neck so that there is room for the head to go through (Note: Sometimes when sewing the binding, I accidentally stretch my large front bodice piece. I just layer it so that the front bodice sits nice and flat, sew it in place and then trim any excess off the side. It still fits fine.)

You can now construct the skater dress as per the pattern instructions and attach the frog fastener on at the end if you have one (you should try find one!)