I made a new dress! ~ I used the Wattlebird Dress pattern by Common Stitch and half of the fabric from a skirt I got off depop. ♡ I love how well it goes with my El Cholo’s Kid purse. 🌈💖 Star hair clips are by Neon Heartbreaker. 🌟
I made the dress out of muslin first because I thought I might need to make some adjustments, based on the experiences of other people on instagram. These are the alterations I ended up making to the sewing pattern:
- Lowered the bust darts
- Very slightly decreased the width on the top front of the dress
- Cut the back as 1 piece instead of 2, and connected the 2 long binding/strap pieces into one before attaching it
- Cut binding/straps on the bias
- Added a lining
- Added a second pocket (the original instructions only have you put in one)
- Shortened the hemline
I had originally gotten this skirt with the intention of just adding elastic to the waist and calling it a day, but once I saw how it was constructed, and the large amount of fabric the skirt had, I changed my mind. I used half the fabric for this dress, and might make a top with the remaining fabric..
Something I found really charming about the original skirt was that it had already been altered by a previous owner! They cut the bottom off of one of the pockets, and used that fabric to add some room to the waistband. 🙂
