Tapered Co Leopard Bow Front Dress

Hey, here comes Alex!

Posted by So

About

yay, another reconstructed shirt dress, still no end in sight and i have not enough closet for too many clothes...
anyway, i finally had the chance to buy a clockwork orange tee i always wanted to have but didn´t find anywhere. i don´t like orange but the movie and the look of the whole image. i decided that it will go well with black and white leopard print jersey and that the silhouette should be like these dresses you can find everywhere these days but i don´t care :) so, it´s parted at the waist, has a tapered skirt and a sleeveless top with high collar. firts, i wanted to finish the collar and the armholes with facings but then i decided to eave the edges unfinished, maybe i add the hem and facings ater if i feel like a neat and finished look.
for the bow at the front i remembered a pattern from the amazing book "pattern magic". it´s a way to add a bow to the front with two seams!! the books by tomoko nakamichi are just so awesome and extraordinary, she does so many ridiclulous things with patterns, not all very wearable but so nice to see what is possible. can´t wait for the third part in english!!

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You Will Need (2 things)

  • T Shirt
  • Jersey

Steps (10 steps, 180 minutes)

  1. 1

    make the pattern for the upper part of the dress.
    i think i´m not allowed to explain how it works here due to copyright issues (correct me if i´m wrong).
    i used my own basic pattern i made a while ago, but in the book there´s also a basic pattern incuded (called bunka)

  2. 2

    cut out
    *2 front pieces
    *1 back piece on fold

    optinal:
    *facings for collar and armholes

  3. 3

    sew the seam at the lower centre front (centre fronts right sides facing).

  4. 4

    fold it out and pin the two gaps (the part you cut to open the front) right sides facing, centre front on fold and centre front seam aligned.
    now you can close the whole front with a seam from the tip of your bow lapel to the other one.

  5. 5

    measure the lower edge of the upper part. maybe you have front and back with different measurements (that´s ok, your back is wider than the front of your body normally)

  6. 6

    take you shirt and mark where you want the upper edge, the hem and the middle(horizontal).
    from the middle go out half of your front measurement to each side. the same with the back.
    draw in your skirt shape and cut with seam allowances.
    sorry for the blurry pic.

  7. 7

    sew one side seam of the skirt and the matching side seam of the top.

  8. 8

    now place the skirt and the top part right sides on right sides, side seam aligned and sew.

  9. 9

    now sew in the zipper at the side seam you left open.

    if you have facings:
    finish them, place your facings right sides facing on the shell fabric and sew.
    fip it over and topstitch from the right or just topstitch the seam allowances down from the facings side.

  10. 10

    if you want a hem, hem the skirt normally or use bias tape etc.

    put the dress on and tie the bow!