My last posts were about the first blouse I made from a real pattern, and then the second one I made from it. Today I’m showing you the next thing I did with that same pattern. I made it into a dress!
For this project I chose a dark green cotton poplin. I also got some light green for a contrasting trim. This time I decided to make the version with short sleeves. To make the blouse into a dress, I started by tracing the pattern down to the waist. Then I marked down from the waist to get a knee-length skirt, meeting the waist smoothly on the side seam. I made it quite wide, and I made sure to mark the length evenly down from the center and down from the side seam so that the skirt would be the same length all around. I didn’t make a pattern or write measurements or anything, just marked what I thought looked like a good width.
Using the light green poplin, I made a narrow trim for the neck ruffle. I also made a ruffle for the hem. Starting with a wide skirt, then multiplying the hem length by 2 or 3 for gathering, I ended up with a very, very long piece of fabric. I had to cut it out in four pieces and stitch them together. Hemming it, stitching gathering lines, then gathering it, pinning it to the dress, sewing it in place, and overlocking that seam took a very long time. It was worth it, though. It’s the perfect finish for the dress.
I had thought about trimming the sleeves as well, but I decided not to, because I didn’t want to overdo it on the accents. I was thinking about making a light green belt too, but I’m not sure anymore if I will. Maybe later I might.
And of course, the initial tag. When you make clothes for a lot of people and they end up in the wash together, you need to have tags so that they don’t find their way into someone else’s closet.
And that’s how you can turn a vintage blouse into a dress. Isn’t it nice? Next up, another dress from this same pattern. I knew this was a popular pattern, but I hadn’t realized just how many versions of this I’ve made until making my list just now. This is starting to look like a Simplicity 8390 series. Well, don’t miss the next one!
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