A while back now long tall Christine ordered herself a dress from a big online retailer. When the ‘dress’ arrived she loved it … as a top! If Chrissy, being a long legged lass of 5’11” wore the dress as intended it may have been considered somewhat ‘indecent’ even by her modern (vintage gal talking here) day standards. She was 20 at the time of purchasing but she deemed it only a good length as a top if worn tucked into jeans.
So off we went fabric shopping. 😀 
Then it was just a simple job of taking a pattern off the original garment by laying it out flat and drawing round. Neatening up the pattern and adding seam allowances just as I did when I made a pattern from Lisa’s Lounge Pants. As dresses go this one is fairly simple. I guess the fiddliest bit was getting a nice even flat finish, and accurate neat angles on the bias binding used around the neck and back V edges. I used Kam snaps for the collar closing and of course made the ‘top’ much longer so it can actually be worn as a dress.
The hems are pretty much all curved so I used my usual overlock ‘natural gather’ trick to get nice flat hems however this time I used a line of stitching to firstly, stabilise the fabric and stop the hem stretching. Then I overlocked the edge, used the stitching line as a fold line for the hem and then smoothed out the gathers until I had a nice flat hem. I finished off with two lines of stitching just as a extra finishing touch to the dress.
The blue paisley print fabric is quite heavy so perfect for cooler autumn evenings but a bit too much for the summer. I have since made another dress in plain black using a soft floaty cotton rich lining fabric… worked a treat and was super cheap ;D
ACraftTeaCuppa 
I love this fabric. Do you remember what it is made of? I bought a rayon fabric that looks similar. It is a green paisley and I am getting a few (nice) comments about it. I wish I could find more! What you have done here is similar to my #DESIGNINGDECEMBER Challenge on WP and IG, etc. I firmly believe “Why buy, when you can make it yourself?” And you have proven it here. Can I reference your post when I next post about the #DESIGNINDECEMBER Challenge?
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Thank you for your kind comments 😀
Oh heavens! I have a feeling it was a fairly heavy cotton or blended cotton… I do have a piece of the fabric left that I could do a burn test on to determine exactly what it is. We bought it from a local market stall where he regularly gets large remnants and bolts from previous years that he sells off nice and cheap. We probably only paid about £2 a meter for it if that! lol
By all means reference any of my posts 🙂 Check out Lisa’s Harem Pants too… Very similar post and a pattern I have used many times since. I have a lot more posts coming up about re-using and re-fashioning garments and fabrics alike 🙂
Lainey x
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There is nothing better than good fabric at a good price, and reusing and refashioning too!
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