Flip This Pattern: Upcycled Roller Skate Dress

I recently found out about this great series on Frances Suzanne, Flip This Pattern. Each month there is a different featured pattern and three entrants "flip" the pattern. At the same time sewists from everywhere can join in and link up their "flipped" pattern too.

I couldn't wait to get involved. This month is the Roller Skate Dress by Oliver and S. I started with some sketches of all of my ideas. They ranged from:  using colour blocking, making it into a romper, pleating the skirt, changing the length to make it a maxi dress, changing the neck line and... what I decided to do which was an up-cycle flip.

I started with a men's business shirt that I got for $7 at an op shop. I had to make quite a few changes to the pattern to make a dress that would open at the front. I wanted it to keep the simple shape and style of the original pattern. It is beautiful, it has simple elegant lines and I wanted to keep all of that. I also wanted to keep the look of the shirt. I hoped that it would be clear that this dress had started life as a shirt. 

So to get the look I wanted I cut the front of the dress from the front of the shirt. I centred the fold line of the pattern piece with the centre of the button placard.

Then instead of cutting two back pieces I decided to make it all one piece and omit the back closure and seam (after all the whole front opens up). So I took the seam allowance off the straight side of the pattern piece and cut it on the fold of the back of the shirt.

Then I cut the same from my lining fabric. I chose a soft yellow with a subtle print. The shirt is a soft blue pin stripe and it could have easily been overpowered.

The pattern has the option of no neck facing or a sweet heart shaped neck facing. I just re-drew the front piece of the facing to make it round and to make it a bit longer to accommodate the extra length from the button placard. The trickiest part (of the whole project for me) was working out how to add the neck facing and the lining to the front neck line and still manage to hide all the seams. The original pattern does this beautifully but doesn't work with my modifications. The pics below are how I did it. It's hard to put in words, I kind of fudged it together :/

(oh, I covered one of the places where there was a button and button hole with the facing then made a new button hole once it was in place)

I had to remove the pocket to cut out the front pieces and when I saw it sitting there on the table I knew it had to be modified (girlified) and included. 

I did not want to use elastic (which is what is used in the pattern). It would have pulled the front open. Instead I made a tie from a length of binding and used button holes to bring the tie to the outside front of the casing. The pic here of the button holes was my first attempt. I ended up moving the button holes a little further away from the centre to get the look I was after.

I pinned and stitched the lining to the inside of the button placard (stitched in the ditch along side it). 

Then I hemmed the bottom catching the lining under the outer fabric hem.

And... this is the end result...

The inside and the pocket.

And of course miss E modelling it :)

Can you see her chewing? Sultanas make good modelling bribes ;)

It's a bit cold here today so we only took a few shots before warming her up a bit. It fit her perfectly and seemed comfortable. she climbed, sat down and jumped into the sand pit with ease :)

Thanks for dropping by. I had a ball flipping this pattern and will be making lots of other variations (as well as some the way the pattern intended). This is a really well written pattern and gives a beautifully finished elegant dress or tunic with lots of room to add individual creativity.  I can't wait to see all the other flipped roller skate dresses as the month rolls on.

Please leave a comment to let me know what you think.

Kerry xx