Ever since I got my copy of Tilly's new book
STRETCH I have been sewing like one possessed. I highly recommend this book both for the clear explanation of techniques and the patterns that come with it. I used to be afraid of jersey knits but no more! I have a Bibi skirt and two Freya tops now, one with the mock roll neck and one with a modified cowl neck. I was going to make the Stella Hoodie dress next but then the British weather turned from Arctic to Tropical and I decided to make a Frankie tee but as a dress.
This is so easy to do and probably the method requires no explanation but I am going to give one in any case.
Cut across the
Lengthen or Shorten Here line on the pattern. Since the Frankie pattern is cut on a straight centre back and centre front fold line all you need to do is place a sheet of appropriate paper to align with that fold line as a continuation from the
Lengthen or Shorten line.
Decide how much longer you require the tee shirt to be to turn it into a dress and place the bottom piece of the pattern at the desired length, remembering that the pattern includes a 2 cm hem allowance. You will need to create a gentle flare line between the severed patterns pieces. I went for a flare of 1 inch (this will give a total of 4 inches extra width to the dress at the hem) and positioned the bottom pattern piece 1 inch in from the centre fold line.
I then drew a straight line between the bottom of the side seam of the top part to the bottom edge of the side seam of the lower part.
And there is your amended pattern. Since the front and back pieces of the Frankie Tee are the same from below the lengthen and shorten line, I only had to do this with one piece and carefully removed the dress bottom taped to the back bodice piece and placed it over the front bodice of the Tee to cut that piece. Below you can see the difference between an original pattern piece and the amended one.
And now some more views of the completed dress.
I cut a size 3 (if I was doing the top only I would do a size 2) as I do not know what is the composition of the fabric, which has been in my stash for years so I am pleased to do some stash busting, but it was synthetic and I wanted a loose cut to allow air to circulate in the summer but also that could take a close fitting polo neck (cue the Freya) in the colder weather. I added 47 cm in length to the pattern. It took 2 metres of 160 cm wide fabric for this dress in the long sleeve version. I hope this helps in estimating how much fabric you would need if you wanted to make this pattern into a dress.
Finally a thank you to the Sun for shining. It makes the flowers look glorious.
