Sewing Idea : New Dress from Old Pattern

From this :

This pattern is from the 1998 February issue of Female magazine. I’ve been wanting to sew a shift dress and this pattern’s measurements fit my body type. The fabric I’m using have this lovely trim that runs down the selvage and I wanted them to be the major attraction. So I redrew the neckline and shorten the length of the dress , like so :

The pattern pieces were cut with the sleeves end and hem line placed on the trims. When sewing with this kind of design, it is better to sew from bottom up so that the trims are lined perfectly. What’s great about having trims on the hems is that there are no finishing to be done !

I ran out of invisible zippers and sew a bag zipper with contrasting color on it, exposed style. I thought it was going to be real fashionable but it turned out really ugly. I spent half the night picking out the whole thing ! Since I was going to wear it the next day, I hand sew on a jacket zipper that matches the dress’ color. The zipper pull was star-shaped so I covered it up with flower trims. When I re-do the zippers, I will cover it up the same way. I think it’s cute !

You can  make all these styles by doing minor modifications on a dress pattern you already have !

images complied from various Pinterest pins ; just search for ‘shift dress’

*Update 22/3/13*  Even more ideas !! Colletterie.com did a post on various shift dress styles ( floral, color, lace, prints and stripes. Then released a shift dress pattern, Laurel with a free pdf on various alterations that can be done to this pattern.