Party Dress Pattern Remix

Do you follow Project Run and Play? It’s a Project Runway-style competition for kids’ clothes, and the seasons to date have been amazing. They also have a sew-along competition, and I’m using it as an excuse to sew more clothes for my kids (not that they need any more clothes at the moment!).

The first round is a pattern remix challenge – put your own spin on a particular pattern. This season it’s the Party Dress from Lindsay at The Cottage Home. It’s a simple bodice and gathered skirt pattern, and which I used to refashion an old top of mine into a dress for Celeste:

I bought the top before I had my first child and a guy at work was sure I was pregnant when I wore it. I did get pregnant not long after, but now I think of it as a maternity top and I just can’t wear it anymore. It was perfect to turn into a sweet, girly dress – it almost looks like a flower girl dress. Too bad I don’t know anyone getting married soon!

Since Celeste has enough clothes for this summer, I made it a Size 3 to fit next year. It still looks adorable on her!

And since I can’t resist the cute shots, here’s what I get when I as Celeste to smile:

She looks a bit warrior princess to me here. And this shot cracked me up too:

Here’s the tutorial:

I started by laying out the bodice pattern on the top – positioning the centre-line at the centre-front of the top:

I traced out the bodice pattern with a washable pen, and marked the pattern where the V-neck section stopped on the shoulder seam:

I marked the same point on the shoulder seam on the back of the bodice, and then modified the back neckline to suit:

Since I wasn’t adding a closure at the back, I also trimmed a section off the back bodice at the centre (at the dashed line):

I traced the back piece onto my top and pinned the front and back so the V-neck wouldn’t shift:

When I got to my serger (or sewing machine). I wasn’t sure if I was going to use the sleeves and I didn’t want them to get damaged, so I trimmed them off (yes, I was making this up as I went along!):

Then I sewed my side seams:

The neckline and sleeves then got trimmed along the lines I drew previously – I sewed the side seams first to hold everything in position better before I cut.

For the back neckline, I unpicked the neckline trim from the original top:

Then I worked out where it would need to sit by lining it up with the neckline:

Flipped it over so it was right sides together and pinned in place:

And then sewed it together:

I then sewed the shoulder seams together:

I wasn’t really sure how to finish off the armholes. I ended up cutting off the ends of the sleeves:

And eased them into the arm holes:

Finally, I wasn’t sure how to modify the slip. I decide to just shorten the straps with a row of stitches.

Since the dress is a size too big at the moment, I may need to modify it for a better fit later. It worked out ok though:

So I very loosely borrowed from the original tutorial, but love that it motivated me to do one of the refashions I’ve wanted to do for a while.

And finally, all photo-shoots in the backyard end up with a Cozy Coupe shot:

Have you refashioned any of your old clothes for your kids?