Charm Patterns - Rita Blouse Dress Hack: 2018 Make Nine

This is my fifth 2018 Make Nine item (and it's April - just saying); number four is for the next post, but this is so fabulous, I had to share it first!

 

As mentioned in my last post, I am very taken with the Charm Patterns Rita Blouse, and had grand plans to hack it into a dress.  Below are just a few of my inspiration dresses:

 

1. Collectif    2. Coco Fennell  3. Coco Fennell

In fairness, I love just about every dress on both the Collectif and Coco Fennell websites, and they feature heavily on my Pinterest sewing boards - anyway...

This was honestly so easy to hack.  I made two changes:

1.  Cut the bodice pieces off at the waist, and added a seam allowance.

Gertie has very helpfully marked the waist on all of the bodice pieces, so it really was just a case of marking a seam allowance 15mm below.

2.  Lengthened the sleeves by 10".

This was really easy too.  All I did was re-trace the original sleeve, then add 10" to the underarm seam.  Here's what it looks like, the original sleeve hem is the horizontal line.

I also added 5 cm to the length of the bodice, as I thought my top versions were a little bit short.  To determine how much to add, I measured from the underbust seam (where a bra underwire sits) to my waist at the centre front, then added the length in above the waist mark.  

 

 

 

The skirt is my self-drafted A-line skirt.  The neckline and sleeves are hemmed with bias tape, which I made from the same fabric as the dress.  

 

Talking of fabric, this is some black vicose with little anchors that I found on ebay, and I'm pretty pleased with how I managed to line all the little anchors up!

I am thrilled with how this dress turned out, it's kind of 70s and exactly how it looked in my head - what's not to love?!

Have a great weekend,

Lynne