Hacking the Patina Blouse into a Dress

After making my first Friday Pattern Company Patina Blouse last month, I knew I needed to make another one. I loved sewing the pattern and the finished blouse is already a favourite in my me made wardrobe. 

 As I thought more about making another blouse, I wondered whether I could hack the pattern into a dress. Browsing through a RTW catalogue I saw a shirt dress with a pointed collar and a ruffled skirt, and then it struck me that I could hack the Patina Blouse and the Davenport dress together and recreate the look! 

 The Patina Blouse is a collared, V-neck, button up blouse with either short sleeves, or lovely long sleeves which are gathered into a cuff. As with most Friday Pattern Company patterns, this pattern goes from a XS to 7X. My measurements place me into a small at the bust, a medium at the waist and a large at the hips. However, I always check finished garment measurements and on Friday Pattern Company patterns I often size down to a small. When I made my Patina Blouse, the small size was a perfect fit, so I knew I would stick with this size for my dress hack. 

 For the skirt of the dress, I wanted to use the Davenport Dress. This is a beautiful dress with full, long sleeves that are finished with a frilled, elastic cuff. The skirt has a casing and drawstring around the waist and a skirt with a gathered ruffle on the bottom. I have previously made this pattern in a size small too, so knew I would make that size again for this dress. 

 For my hack, I wanted to use the Patina blouse, and chop it off at my natural waist to create the bodice of the dress. I then wanted to use the waistband casing, drawstring, skirt, and ruffle pieces from the Davenport. For the sleeves, I decided to use the pattern pieces from the Patina Blouse. I lengthened them by 3 inches to finish the hem of the sleeves with elastic and a frill, the same way they are finished in the Davenport Dress. 

 The first thing I did, was simply to decide where to finish the blouse. I measured the distance from my shoulders to my natural waist and compared this to the pattern pieces. I also measured the Davenport bodice pieces as I like the length of the bodice, and the blousy feel it has. I amended the Patina Blouse front and back bodice pieces to finish at this new length. I also adjusted the facing pieces. 

 The second change I made was to remove the pockets from the skirt of the Davenport pattern. I thought there was enough going on with the collar and button up bodice, so I wanted to keep the look of the skirt simple. I laid the pocket pieces on top of the front skirt piece, lining up the notches, and traced off the ‘new’ front skirt piece. 

 The bodice came together quickly. It is a beautiful sew and I love the way the inside is finished using the burrito method. The only change I made was to add an extra button to the placket as I wanted to make the button spacing smaller to ensure there was no gaping. 

 The only problem I encountered during this make was when I sewed the skirt to the bodice. When amending the pattern pieces, I had foolishly failed to check the measurements of the bottom of the front bodice. The back bodice lined up perfectly with the skirt back, but the front bodice was slightly smaller than the skirt front. Fortunately, I had used a wide, straight stitch to baste the waistband casing onto the skirt piece before attaching it to the bodice. I used these basting stitches to gather the skirt front very slightly, so that it matched the length of the front bodice piece. I figured that since I was going to use the drawstring to cinch in the waist of the dress, these slight gathers would not be noticeable, however it is something I will change on the pattern piece the next time I make this hack! 

I finished off this dress with one of my new labels from the Kylie and the Machine advent calendar, which felt like the perfect sentiment after having thought about making this dress for so long! 

 I should also mention that I made this dress in a cotton poplin from Orya Textiles. I loved the colours of this fabric. With the pops of bright red and green it feels very festive. I really like using cotton for the Patina as it is lovely and stable to work with, and it holds the shape of the collar, as well as the gathers in the Davenport skirt nicely. However, I would love to try both the blouse, and this hack in a viscose for the summer, as I think that would look beautiful! 

 I absolutely love this dress. It turned out just as I had imagined it. It was hot off the sewing machine on Friday and had its first Christmassy outing at a carol service over the weekend, which was lovely! I am already planning to make more of these ‘Daventina’ Dresses soon. With a short sleeve for the warm spring weather we are all dreaming of!