Top to Dress, or Do Remember You Have Hips

If you have ever seen a sewing pattern for a top and thought, “I would like that better as a dress,” it can be done. But usually you need more flare through the hipline than you would think. Remember that your hips are one measurement, then you need wearing ease, that is, enough fabric to give you room to move, and then design easy, that is, enough to create a graceful flow of fabric. Take a look at the width of skirts or dresses which have the silhouette you are aiming for before you begin altering the pattern. Even though this came as a tunic, it still needed more width to make a dress.

In addition to turning Butterick 5495 into a dress for the second time, I did two other alterations. I raised the front neckline by some 3 inches, and gave it a wide facing instead of the skinny one offered by the pattern. This skinny one kept flipping outward, which is so annoying, and by attaching to the seam allowance where the two front bodice pieces are seamed. You can only barely see that seam in the illustrations, but it helps allow for the draping.

I drafted that pattern piece from the original center bodice piece only to realize that, of course, it narrowed with the gathering at the center. So then I trimmed it to fit. I also raised the back neckline a bit too to create a flowing line; first by drafting, and then by draping it on my mannequin in order to achieve what I had in mind.

Flouncing Out of the Room: Vogue 9726 

I was leafing through my skirt patterns looking for one with some walking ease when I found this one, and realized something strange: it offers only a back view. Most pattern envelopes offer only front views of front and back views. So why only the back?

The skirt is relatively plain in the front, although many fitted skirts are plain. From the front, you can only see the corners of the large single flounce, or the pleats, as they come around from the back of the skirt and wrap over to the front. The back gets all the attention because it has all the drama. It can have a a large flounce, a large, sheer chiffon flounce on the longest version which shoots it into evening wear category, or a set of graduated pleats which made it perfect for office work wear. Notice how the illustration pairs the collared blouse with the pleated version, another nod to work wear. This is a 1997 pattern, a time  when women had been climbing the corporate ladder enough that their work wear was moving away from the era of giant-shoulder pads, and a skirt with some crisp details was considered appropriate. 

It has no waistband; instead the designer suggested merely running seam binding along the inner waistline seam where the lining and the fashion fabric at attached to one another, and then the side zipper has a hook an eye at the top. This struck me as too flimsy a closing, so I borrowed a feature from ready-to-wear: a waistline facing, and a tab with flat button on the inside across the zipper closing.

The Big Blooms Print Dress: Messing with Pattern Butterick 6582

Or altering the pattern or hacking the pattern or whatever you like to call it.

After I decided to use this sewing pattern for the Big Blooms print dress, I pondered whether I liked it as is, or wanted to change it a bit. I decided on 3 changes.

First, shift the zipper from the middle of the back to the side seam at the left. Back zippers are only less annoying than back buttons, but both are awkward to get on and off alone. I decided close the side seam for 2 inches below the armhole opening and then set in an invisible zipper which would end around high-hip.

Second, I decided to change the neckline at the back. True, a v-neckline echoes the one in the front, but nobody is ever going to see both the front and the back at the same time. And since I have already made this dress once, I also knew the that back neck-line came down just low enough on me to have to worry about lingerie showing and I try never to worry about my clothes when I have them on. So I took a curved ruler and simply shifted the neckline up and rounded it. Without the zipper, I could eliminate the center-back seam on the bodice which no longer served a purpose.