I started looking through my closet at all my lovely Memades and realized there were some things I loved but wasn’t wearing. I didn’t know why that was exactly. So I grabbed one of my faves and thought I would alter it this month for Alter It August hosted by @Sewnorth on instagram.

Let me just say that I loved this dress. It was was a July 2019 @sewyourview challenge of the Simplicity #8375 pattern. It was a pretty basic t-shirt dress pattern that comes with different ways you can “hack” it. Super fun idea for those that like to get a little creative with their makes. I actually loved the way it came out. It was comfortable, I loved the fabric and it was easy to wear. For some reason I wasn’t wearing it…….. Like at all. So I put it on and wore it around. I came to the conclusion that I didn’t like the elastic I used to gather the tiers. It made it not flow how I wanted it too. I also didn’t like the fabric I used for the black tier. It was a cotton blend and it attracted so much dog hair it was alarming. I also like wearing separates more that I like wearing actually dresses.

The decision was made that I was going to alter it into a peplum shirt using a pattern by @blankslate pattern The Verbena. I  made a sunflower dress and two peplum tops that I love and wear all the time. My sister loved them so much that I made her a top as well and she wears it constantly.

I knew the alteration would be easy, I just had to check all the pieces and make sure they would fit. I turned the dress inside out and roughly measured the pattern pieces against the dress. When I was satisfied it would work I began the process of taking my dress apart. Luckily I had enough room that I didn’t need to pick out any seams. Thank goodness! I could just cut the fabric on the seam lines. First I needed to remove the skirt from the bodice.

Then I cut the side of the bodice at the seams and around the armholes to separate the front from the back. I didn’t want to redo the neckband so I just left it on and measured everything with it in place. It meant that the front and back necklines were basically the same but I was fine with that. This saved a lot of time not having to redo the neckline. I also had enough room to pretty much match the fabric designs on the front and back like I did with the dress.

Once I had the front and back bodice pieces cut out I needed to do the sleeves. The top of the sleeve was the right size but the sleeve got considerably skinnier than the pattern piece after the armpit area. This fabric I’m using was extremely stretchy though so I knew it would be fine. I just wanted to make sure to match the design on the bodice with the sleeve. I kind of winged this part. I cut each sleeve separately making sure to do mirror images because I didn’t have extra fabric if I messed it up. Then I laid them on top of each other (mirror image wise) to make sure they were the same size.

For the peplum ruffle I didn’t have enough fabric to cut a circle ruffle so I just cut the bottom tier off the dress to make a gathered ruffle. Before I gathered the ruffle tho, I made quarter markings on the bodice and the the ruffle piece so I would know where to attach the pieces. Then I did two rows of basting stitches to gather the ruffle.

I sewed it all together and had this cute top that I could wear with a lot of different bottoms year round. You can see how I was able to match the sleeves to the front design. I was pretty excited about that.

I Love it so much more than the original!  Now I have a cute new top that I can pair with all sorts of bottoms. Here’s a few different ways I can wear it.

I think this casual short and converse look is my favorite. Super comfy and so ME!

Doing this really got me thinking about what else I could alter to help me get the most out of my wardrobe. I’m really glad I did this. Hopefully this helps you think of different ways you can alter things in your wardrobe too.

Happy Sewing and Altering Hopfully!

Koe